Had Threatened To Quit, UN Peacekeeping Budget Agreed 6 Billion US Dollars

Illustration of the UN peacekeeping force. (Wikimedia Commons/Marie-Lan Nguyen)

JAKARTA - United Nations (UN) member states on Tuesday approved a budget of about $6 billion for the world body's 12 peacekeeping missions for next year, diplomats said, to avoid a possible shutdown.

The 193-member UN General Assembly budget committee approved the peacekeeping budget for the year to 30 June 2022. The budget will be formally adopted by the General Assembly this Wednesday local time.

Earlier, the top UN official said on Monday the UN peacekeeping missions, which are mostly in Africa and the Middle East, had been advised to start putting in place contingency plans if the new budget was not adopted by June 30.

Diplomats said changes to negotiating procedures, problems with logistics and tough talks between China and the West had threatened to delay a budget deal.

"Our chronic inability to honor deadlines puts the entire peacekeeping architecture in unprecedented jeopardy," EU diplomat Thibault Camelli told the budget committee on Tuesday.

"Going forward, and for future negotiations, we owe it to the women and men on the ground who carry out peacekeeping mandates to get our work done on time," he continued.

Earlier, the UN's head of strategy, management, policy and compliance, Catherine Pollard, said on Monday that if the June 30 deadline was missed, then UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could only spend money on safeguarding assets and ensuring the protection of staff and peacekeepers.

To note, the United States is the largest contributor to funding the UN peacekeeping force budget, with a contribution reaching 28 percent, followed by China 15 percent and Japan 8.5 percent.