Says UN will reform to be more effective, cost-efficient, and deliver for people
\nnew york
\nUnited Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the billions of dollars the United States owes to the world body is \u201cnon-negotiable\u201d, after reports that \u200bWashington had placed conditions on releasing the funds.
\nThe development newswire Devex reported \u200cthis week that two diplomatic notes circulated by the US called for nine \u201cquick-hit\u201d reforms as a condition for releasing more funds, including further cost-cutting, and moves to counter China\u2019s influence at \u200bthe United Nations.
\n\u201cThe money we are talking about is referred to as \u200bassessed contributions,\u201d Guterres told reporters when asked about the reports. \u201cAssessed contributions are an obligation of member states. They are non-negotiable.\u201d
\nGuterres, who has been leading \u200breform efforts under pressure from member states, especially the US, said the \u200bUN would do its best \u201cto make sure that we make this organisation as effective and as cost-effective and as able to deliver for the people we care for\u201d.
\n\u201cBut these are two separate \u200bthings,\u201d he added.
\nAccording to Devex, the US-demanded cost-cutting included overhauling the UN pension \u200bsystem, ending long-distance business-class travel for some senior and all mid-level professionals, additional cuts to \u200csenior UN ranks and a 10% reduction in long-running and ineffective peacekeeping missions.
\nIt said they also included a demand to block China from channelling tens of millions of dollars each year to a discretionary fund housed in the office of the UN \u200bsecretary-general, a move aimed \u200bat countering Chinese influence.
\nThe US mission to the United Nations has not commented on the reports. The US has said repeatedly it will keep \u200bpressuring the UN to reform after announcing its withdrawal \u200bfrom dozens of UN bodies this year and cutting millions of dollars in funding last year.
\nGuterres warned in January that the UN faced \u201cimminent financial collapse\u201d due to unpaid fees, most of which \u200bare owed by the US. The UN \u200bsaid in February that the US had paid about $160 million of the more than $4 billion it owes \u200bto the world body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Says UN will reform to be more effective, cost-efficient, and deliver for people new york United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the billions of dollars the United States owes to the world body is \u201cnon-negotiable\u201d, after reports that \u200bWashington had placed conditions on releasing the funds. The development newswire Devex reported \u200cthis …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":97137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97154,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97131\/revisions\/97154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}