US diplomats walk out of UN meeting as France attacks Trump rights record

Unitednations,UPDATED: Jul 28, 2026 01:34 IST

US diplomats walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Monday as France spoke, in a sharp public sign of tensions between the two allies. After the brief walkout, the US accused France of "disingenuous grandstanding" for criticising the Trump administration's human rights record.

The episode came soon after the United States opposed a second four-year term for UN human rights chief Volker Trk, whose reappointment won overwhelming support on Friday, including from France. It also reflected wider strain between the US and Europe over issues including President Donald Trump's commitment to NATO, possible changes to US troop deployments in Europe, his desire to control Greenland, and his complaint that Europeans were not consulted and did not help the US during the Iran war. Amid these tensions, French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing efforts to strengthen Europe's military and ensure a nuclear umbrella, alongside Britain.

The immediate trigger for the walkout was a social media post on Friday from France's UN Mission in Geneva after the General Assembly backed Trk's reappointment by 144 votes to 10, with 13 abstentions. The US was among the countries that voted against him. The French Mission posted: "The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it."

Responding on X, US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz accused France of coddling "some of the worst human rights abusers" and voting "for someone who has been lecturing, free, sovereign democracies like the United States, the UK, and Israel, while cozying up to the world's worst oppressors."

Trk's role as UN human rights chief has often put him at odds with governments because it requires him to speak against rights violations by UN member states. He has sharply criticised Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza, and has also called for a "massive rethink" of US immigration policy before the World Cup, citing concerns over "racial profiling, surveillance and immigration enforcement".

At Monday's meeting, deputy US ambassador Dan Negrea directed his criticism at France. He said France was showing "moral outrage" and trying to lecture the world on every issue, including human rights. He added that the US had stood by France in every conflict where its "freedom has been imperiled" and had tolerated its grandstanding "out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect", but that this would not continue. Negrea said, "Today, I remind them that it is the United States that remains the beacon of liberty for the world. As such, we will not be affording them the benefit of listening to their politicized drivel until they renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric and behave in a manner commensurate with their seat on this council."

France's UN Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont did not refer to the walkout when he was later given the floor to respond at the end of the meeting. Instead, he said France, which helped the United States gain its independence, had taken part in the July 4 celebration of America's 250th anniversary. He said, "The United Nations was created with the goal of working towards international peace and security, human rights and development. All of that forms the spirit in which France works within the United Nations to preserve this institution, its independence, its ability to act in service of the charter and act to serve human rights and peace."

The exchange at the UN brought together a dispute over Trk's reappointment, a public clash between US and French diplomats, and the wider strain in relations between Washington and Europe.

With PTI Inputs

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