The United States (US) formally notified on Monday its withdrawal from the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body, according to The Guardian.

The State Department confirmed the move and said that US participation, which requires an annual monetary contribution, “does not provide tangible benefits to US national security”, according to the Associated Press. [Only Russia and Belarus had left GRECO before], according to the Associated Press. The State Department also said that “the era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over”.