After Bolton’s criticism, another Trump administration official has criticized the financing of UN peacekeeping missions for relying too heavily on the US.
Rabat – US Representative for UN Management and Reform Ambassador Cherith Norman Chalet expressed “disappointment” over other countries’ lack of financial contributions to the United Nations peacekeeping operations across the world.
Chalet’s statement, published by the United States Mission to the UN on December 22, accused other countries of not caring how peacekeeping missions are financed.
“Unfortunately in a deeply dissatisfying and disappointing turn of events, every country decided reform was good and right for the UN, but not for how it is financed,” she said.
While the diplomat reaffirmed the US’s support for the UN, she said that the US will not pay more than 25 percent of the peacekeeping budget.
“The lack of agreement on a 25 percent ceiling will cause the organization to continue to face a three percent shortfall in its peacekeeping budget as the United States will pay no more than 25 percent of peacekeeping expenses, again a less than ideal outcome,” Chalet said.
She added that the US firmly believes no UN member country “should pay more than one-quarter of the organization’s budget.”
The US is a key contributor to the UN budget, providing $10 billion annually, according to Bloomberg.
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The US ambassador said that it is unfair that many countries “receive extraordinary discounts on their peacekeeping assessments,” and called for more “equitable financial burden sharing.”
Chalet’s critical statement followed similar comments by Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, who said Western Sahara and the UN peacekeeping mission MINURSO is one of his “favorite” examples for how missions fail to end conflicts.
“From now on, the United States will not tolerate this longstanding pattern of aid without effect, assistance without accountability, and relief without reform,” said Bolton at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., on December 13.
“Unfortunately, all to often at the United Nations, establishing the peacekeeping force and deploying is the end of creative thinking,” he said, referring to MINURSO and peacekeeping operations.
Expressing frustration over the continuous conflict over Western Sahara, Bolton said that although the UN deployed its forces in the region in 1991, it has failed to end the dispute.
“Ladies and gentlemen, 27 years of deployment of this peacekeeping force, 27 years and it’s still there? How can you justify that? I have got to know over the years the Saharawi people, I have enormous respect for them, I have enormous respect for the government and people of Morocco and Algeria, is there not a way to resolve it?”
