UN peacekeeping falls victim to Trump proposed funding cuts
President Trump’s budget office has suggested cutting funding for United Nations peacekeeping operations, citing failures by missions in Mali, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reuters reported.
Washington is the U.N.’s biggest contributor. China stands at second. US pays 22% of the $3.7 billion core regular U.N. budget and 27% of the $5.6 billion peacekeeping budget. These are mandatory payments.
The suggested peacekeeping reductions are part of a so-called “Passback,” the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) reply to State Department budget requests for the new fiscal year, which starts on October 1. The general plan seeks to cut the State Department budget roughly in half.
The new budget would have to be approved by Congress, and legislators might choose to reinstate some or all of the money the administration has suggested cutting.
The State Department was scheduled to respond to the OMB proposal on Tuesday. During U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term he suggested cutting roughly a third of diplomacy and aid budgets. But Congress, which determines the federal government budget, pushed back against Trump’s suggestion.
“There is no last plan, last budget,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce informed reporters on Tuesday when questioned about the OMB proposals. The OMB has suggested terminating Contributions for International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA).
“For instance, Passback offers no funding for CIPA, stopping contributions to international peacekeeping as a result of the recent failures in peacekeeping, including that of MINUSMA, UNIFIL, and MONUSCO, and the disproportionately high level of assessments,”
an excerpt from the Passback states.
US in default
The UN peacekeeping budget supports nine missions in Mali, Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Western Sahara, Cyprus, Kosovo, along the border between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Abyei, a joint administrative district controlled by South Sudan and Sudan.
The OMB Passback also suggested establishing a $2.1 billion America First Opportunities Fund (A1OF), which it stated would be employed to finance a limited range of foreign economic and development assistance priorities. “If the Administration wished to pay any United Nations Regular Budget or peacekeeping assessments, we would look to fund that through the A1OF,” the OMB Passback stated.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday would not comment on “what seems to be a leaked memo that is part of an internal discussion within the U.S. government.”
The U.S. owes – for arrears and the current fiscal year – almost $1.5 billion for the normal U.N. budget and almost $1.2 billion for the peacekeeping budget. A state can be as much as two years in arrears before it can incur the potential sanction of losing its vote in the 193-member General Assembly.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier this month announced he is looking for means to enhance efficiency and reduce expenditure as the world organization celebrates its 80th anniversary this year under a cash crunch.
