UN agrees deep cuts to peacekeeping budget

PanARMENIAN.Net - A tentative deal to cut nearly $600 million from the UN peacekeeping budget was reached on Wednesday, June 28, capping weeks of tough negotiations over US demands for a sharp reduction in costs, UN diplomats said, according to AFP.

Under the deal agreed by a budget committee of the General Assembly, the United Nations will spend $7.3 billion on peacekeeping in the coming year, down from the current $7.87 billion -- roughly a seven percent cut -- according to diplomats familiar with the negotiations.

The United States, the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, had sought a nearly $1 billion cut to the bill and the European Union had also pushed for savings to bring costs down to $7.3 billion.

Hardest hit by the cuts will be the UN missions in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the two costliest operations with budgets that run over $1 billion.

The closure of the UN mission in Haiti in October will also generate savings.

A Security Council diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said however there will be "cuts across the board" in the 13 missions as a result of US pressure.

But French Ambassador Francois Delattre said the cuts will allow the missions to continue their peacekeeping work "while being more efficient."

"The savings proposed in the budget have been carefully targeted," Delattre told AFP.

Washington pays 28.5 percent of the peacekeeping budget and 22 percent of the UN's core budget of $5.4 billion.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley wants to bring the US share of the peacekeeping budget down to 25 percent. China, Japan, Germany and France are the four biggest peacekeeping financial backers after the United States.

The budget deal falls short of what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was seeking. He had put forward a budget of $7.97 billion for the year which runs from July 1 to June 30, 2018.