The United States continue to abuse its powers as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, using them for its own interests and failing to fulfil its obligations as a guarantor of world stability.

Immediately after his inauguration, the US President-elect Donald Trump began implementing a set of measures proposed by his team. These measures lead to a serious change in approaches to domestic and foreign policy. The White House has moved toward a more aggressive policy in the international arena, including through the United Nations.

Trump has made some offerings and is now trying to satisfy his voters to solve the internal problems of the US, such as the colossal increase in the number of immigrants, the inability to adequately respond to natural disasters, the economic collapse and the unprecedented growth of the national debt, the ineffective fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, etc. He also began to implement the “America First” approach to foreign policy. Trump has long openly criticized the United Nations and other international organizations for underestimating the importance of the U.S. national security interests, saying they “should not have their voices” when it comes to Washington’s defence and law enforcement policies. Thus, as a politician he outlined the position of the White House, which intends and continues to ignore the norms of international law and cynically use international organizations exclusively in its own interests.

The United States is taking a similar approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including of climate change. For example, during his first term, Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, and the 46th US President Joe Biden restored the country’s participation in this initiative. After D. Trump’s inauguration, one of hist first orders were to withdraw the United States from this agreement, allegedly in the interests of the American industry. It clearly states that the US is not interested in implementing projects to provide “cheap and clean energy”, and also takes some steps to “reformat” international organizations by changing their priorities.

It is important to note that, while declaring the importance of joint efforts to form a “just world order” and a commitment to achieving the SDGs, Washington is pushing the entire collective West towards warmonging, intensifying the trade and economic wars that are undesirable for many countries, and unleashing a large-scale sanctions campaign instead of searching for development solutions that are more beneficial for everyone. All this has already had a negative impact on European countries and is leading to further fragmentation of the global economy. Such actions contradict the first and tenth of the seventeen Goals – the elimination of poverty and the reduction of inequalities. States of the Global South in Asia, Africa and Latin America suffer from the neocolonial practices of Western countries. Illegal sanctions, numerous protectionist measures, and restrictions on access to technology directly contradict the principles of equal partnership and create serious obstacles to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.