The Trump administration has started the process to transfer $725m to the United Nations, a congressional notification seen by showed – a move aid experts said was a welcome step towards paying billions in dues owed. There was no immediate response from Washington DC to questions about the reasons for the payment from an administration that has slashed funding to many UN agencies and blasted the global body for not living up to its potential. The money – mentioned in a 4 August state department notification letter to Congress that has not previously been reported – is set to go through before an expected speech by Donald Trump to the annual UN general assembly in New York City next month.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said this year that the UN faced “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid contributions from member states, and the global body has brought in large budget cuts. The $725m would be less than 20% of the more than $4bn that the UN said in May it was owed by the United States – though Washington has said that total figure is much lower and that it has made some payments. Eugene Chen, a former UN official, told such a transfer would help pay UN salaries for a period, but might not cover them all.
Under article 19 of the UN charter, a member state loses its voting rights in the general assembly if its arrears exceed two years in annual fees, although grace periods are possible. A significant transfer now could avert the need for immediate spending cuts, Ronny Patz, an expert in UN finance with German thinktank IDOS (the German Institute of Development and Sustainability), said. Washington also withdrew from dozens of UN and other international agencies.
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