Trump administration begins transfer of $725m to UN, amid billions owed

UN secretary general has said UN faces ‘imminent financial collapse’ due to unpaid contributions from member states

The Trump administration has started the process to transfer $725m to the United Nations , a congressional notification seen by Reuters ⁠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 Reuters such a transfer would help pay UN salaries for a period, but might not cover them all. “It keeps the ship afloat a little longer,” he said.

“If the US does not make further payments, it will likely lose its voting rights in January,” he added.

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.

“If they pay a big chunk, the UN ‌still runs on zero reserves but it gets through the year,” Patz added. “If they don’t pay, the UN might really be in trouble for the last two or three months of the year in terms of paying salaries and keeping the doors open.”

The US is the ​biggest contributor to the UN budget, but under the Trump administration it has refused to make mandatory payments to regular and peacekeeping budgets, and has slashed voluntary funding to other functions.

Washington also withdrew from dozens of UN and other international agencies.