At a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session on Russia's war in Ukraine, US diplomats walked out of the meeting in protest as French representatives began speaking.
The incident on Monday came right after an online spat that erupted between officials of the two countries after Washington voted against renewing the four-year term of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
France's UN mission in Geneva said in a statement on Saturday that the US was no longer a "beacon of human rights," accusing Washington of siding with North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali and Russia.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said on social media that France had voted for a rights chief who "cozies up to the world's worst oppressors while lecturing free, sovereign democracies like the US, UK and Israel."
After walking out, US alternate representative Dan Negrea told the council that the US delegation would keep walking out until France retracts its "condescending and disrespectful rhetoric."
French ambassador Jerome Bonnafont did not address the protest in his remarks, saying France was working to protect the UN's independence and ability to act.
Volker Türk was re-elected in the UN General Assembly with 144 votes in favor, 10 against and 13 abstentions. Türk had previously criticized Israel and the US for violations of international law in Palestine and Iran.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has cut funding to UN agencies and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies since 2025. It had also threatened to reassess its engagement because of Türk's term.
Tensions have recently flared between Washington and Paris over NATO spending, trade policy and Trump's threats to occupy Greenland, which belongs to NATO member Denmark. France, along with other European states, had drawn Trump's ire by refusing to directly join a US-Israeli war against Iran.
Maria Nica / Editor
