UNITED NATIONS, United States, June 18, 2025 (AFP) – The United States announced Tuesday that it will skip a major UN development conference, as the Trump administration implements massive cuts to foreign aid.

Jonathan Shrier, the US representative taking part in preparations for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, said his country was withdrawing from preparations and would not be participating in the event held from June 29 to July 3 in Seville, Spain.

“The United States sought throughout this process to work toward a concise outcome document that could capture shared ambitions for development finance, rather than one that imposes new requirements, creates duplicative new structures and impinges on the sovereignty of member states,” Shrier said. “We regret the missed opportunity.”

After the United States pulled out, UN member states adopted a draft declaration emphasizing their commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These aim, among other things, to eradicate extreme poverty, combat hunger, and promote gender equality by 2030.

The United States refused to support those aims.

“We no longer reaffirm the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the sustainable development goals as a matter of course,” said Shrier, adding that his country opposes “the use of the term gender when discussing sex-based distinctions, and we do not support sex-based preferences in any event.”

He also expressed US opposition to the establishment of a development finance system that “interferes” with international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, as well as to a UN Convention on Tax Cooperation.

Many developing countries, burdened by debt, have long called for reform of the international financial architecture to facilitate their access to finance and their development.

The draft declaration supports this, saying that the global financial systems must “continuously adapt to changing global realities.”

It also calls on multilateral development banks to consider tripling their annual lending capacity, an idea criticized by the United States.