United Nations Owes India $38 Million for Peacekeeping Operations

The United Nations owes India $38 million for the peacekeeping operations till March 2019. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has confessed this while voicing his concern over the deteriorating financial health of the world body.

Presenting his report on improving the financial situation of the world body, UN Secretary-General said the total amount payable to troops and police-contributing countries for peacekeeping missions till March 2019 was $265 million and out of $265 million, the UN owes $38 million to India, followed by Rwanda ($31 million), Pakistan ($28 million), Bangladesh ($25 million) and Nepal ($23 million).

He also said that the arrears to the troop and police contributing countries could increase to $588 million by the end of June 2019, if things could be checked as early as possible.

The UN chief also said that the troop and police contributing countries may or may not be paid depends on the cash position of the individual missions for which they contribute. As he said, “That has created a paradox. The United Nations is now effectively borrowing for prolonged periods from troop- and police-contributing countries. Many of them are low-income countries for which that impose a significant financial burden. At the same time, the organisation is asking those same countries to do more to train their personnel and improve the quality of their equipment, all while operating in increasingly challenging environments. The UN, however, is not fulfilling its obligation towards them in a timely manner”.

Guterres has acknowledged that the countries are providing well-trained and well-equipped personnel for the peacekeeping operations and they continue to improve on that objective.

India’s permanent representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin has also raised this issue of the financial crisis before the United Nations peacekeeping recently, particularly the non-payment or delayed payment of arrears to the troop and police contributing countries.

Syed Akbaruddin said, “It results in TCCs/PCCs bearing unsustainable burdens. In some cases, TCCs and PCCs are owed 100 to 200 times their cumulative annual financial contributions to the UN”.

Guterres has assured that the United Nations is working to become more effective, accountable, transparent and efficient but the success of its efforts depends on the support of member countries. Out of 193 member nations in the year 2017 and 2018, only 73 member states had paid their contributions in full by the end of the first quarter, compared to 62 in 2016 and 67 in 2015. So far, 74 member states have paid their contributions in full in 2019.