Home Latest News U.S. Wants $250mn Cut to U.N. Budget

U.S. Wants $250mn Cut to U.N. Budget

by AFP

Jose Manuel Ribeiro—AFP

Diplomats say the proposed cut would be nearly impossible to achieve

The United States is seeking a $250 million cut to the core budget of the United Nations for 2018-2019, on top of $200 million in savings already proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, diplomats said on Tuesday.

The budget is under negotiations in a General Assembly committee, which is expected to adopt it before the end of December. Guterres has proposed capping the U.N. biennial budget at $5.4 billion, shaving off $200 million from the 2016-2017 budget. Two diplomats told AFP that the United States had put forward a proposal for an additional $250 million reduction—a 5 percent cut that another diplomat said would be nearly impossible to achieve.

The United States is the U.N.’s number one financial contributor, providing 22 percent of the core budget.

Diplomats said the proposed U.S. budget cuts could target political missions in Libya and Afghanistan as well as the office for Palestinian rights and communication services. There was no immediate U.N. reaction.

The European Union has also put forward a proposal to seek an additional $170 million in savings from the budget. “This is a classic game,” said a diplomat. “There’s always two camps—the United States and the European Union—who want to reduce the budget and the rest of the countries who don’t.”

The U.N.’s operating budget is separate from its peacekeeping budget, which was cut by $600 million this year, under pressure from the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump. The push for deeper cuts comes as Guterres is trying to build support for his plans for reform of the U.N. bureaucracy.

During a meeting held on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly debate in September, Trump said the United Nations had failed to reach its “full potential due to bureaucracy and mismanagement.”

“We are not seeing the results in line with this investment,” he said.

The United Nations employs 40,000 people recruited worldwide.

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