The United Nations may not have the money to pay monthly salaries to employees next month if member states do not settle their debts, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned.
He said before the budget committee of the UN General Assembly that he had not worked on reducing spending since January, "we would not be liquid to support" the annual gathering of world leaders last month.
"This month we will be in the largest deficit in the last ten years. We risk... entering November without money to pay monthly salaries", Guterres said. "Our work and our reforms are threatened".
The United States is the largest contributor to the UN budget and is responsible for 22 percent of the over 3,3 billion budget for 2019, which is used to finance political, humanitarian, economic and social activities and communications.
Washington owes about $381 million for previous regular budgets and $674 million for the 2019 budget. The US mission to the UN confirmed this data for Reuters.
US President Donald Trump said that Washington bears an unfairly large burden of the costs of the United Nations and advocates reforms of the world institution. Guterres is working to improve UN operations and reduce costs. The UN spokesman said that so far 129 countries have settled their obligations for 2019 and that this amounts to almost two billion dollars.
Guterres said that last month he introduced emergency measures due to a lack of money. Vacancies will not be filled, only essential travel is allowed, some meetings are canceled or postponed, and UN operations in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi as well as regional committees will be affected.
UN peacekeeping missions are financed from a separate budget, which for the year ending June 30, 2019 amounted to $6,7 billion. The US pays almost 28 percent of the budget for peacekeeping missions, but has said it will pay only 25 percent - as required by US law. Washington currently owes 2,4 billion for peacekeeping missions.
The United Nations claims that its peacekeeping operations cost less than one percent of world military spending.
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