Donald Trump Dismisses ‘Severe Financial Crisis’ in the UN
The United Nations has a wide range of functions to perform in the world and naturally, it needs a massive budget in order to function properly. In a new development, the current Secretary-General of the UN, Antonio Guterres revealed that the organization is facing a severe financial crisis owing to unpaid bills from a range of nations. He stated that the global body and its associated subsidiaries would not be able to pay its bills if the nations in question don’t pay what is owed. He had added that the UN might also struggle to pay salaries to its employees. The United States is, in fact, that nation that has had the highest quantum of dues owed to the UN and currently owes as much as $381 million. The financial crisis seems to be affecting a large span of industries including the casinos.
However, the President of the United States Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday that the UN must make all the member countries pay their dues and should not only demand payment from the US. Guterres stated that the UN has a budget of $2.87 billion for the next year and the US owes it $381 million from prior budgets. Guterres has also noted that it is the worst financial crisis that is facing the UN in 10 years. He said, “The situation continues to deteriorate. We risk exhausting peacekeeping cash reserves and will enter November without enough cash to pay payrolls.” However, that is not all that is owed by the US at this point in time.
While $381 million is owed in prior budgets, the country owes as much as $674 million in the regular budget. In addition to that, it is also staring at a bill in excess of $2.6 billion for UN peacekeeping missions. That being said, the high degree of dues could also be due to the fact that the fiscal year begins in October in the US while the UN maintains a calendar year budget. Despite the protests of the current President, an official from the US has reiterated that all the current dues owed to the UN are going to pay in full by the time November ends.
