American diplomats walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting on Russia's war in Ukraine as the French delegation began to speak on Monday.
The move came two days after an online exchange between US and French officials over Washington's vote against renewing the four-year term of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
The French UN mission in Geneva wrote on Saturday that the US was no longer a “beacon of human rights” and stood isolated alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali and Russia. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz responded on X that France had voted for a human rights chief who “lectured sovereign liberal democracies like the US, the UK, and Israel, while cozying up to the world's worst oppressors.”
Following the walkout, US alternate representative Dan Negrea told the council that his delegation would continue to do so until France abandoned “condescending and disrespectful rhetoric.” French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont did not address the incident during his remarks, saying France was working to protect the UN's independence and capacity to act.
Turk, who has criticized Israeli and US violations of international law in Palestine and Iran, was reappointed through a UN General Assembly vote with 144 in favor, 10 against, and 13 abstentions. The Trump administration has cut funding to UN agencies and withdrawn from dozens of UN entities since 2025, and had threatened to review its participation regarding Turk's mandate.
Washington and Paris have also clashed over NATO spending, trade policy, and Trump's threats to seize Greenland, a territory of NATO member Denmark. France, along with other European nations, also angered Trump by refusing to directly join the US-Israel war against Iran.
