News Mania Desk / Piyal Chatterjee / 8th November 2024
The United Nations has been preparing for Donald Trump’s potential comeback and the reductions in U.S. financing and participation in international organizations that are anticipated to accompany his second term in office. As Republican Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s U.S. election, a top Asian diplomat described a feeling of “déjà vu and some trepidation” at the 193-member world body.
“There is also some hope that a transactional administration will engage the U.N. on some areas even if it were to defund some dossiers. After all, what bigger and better global stage is there than the United Nations?” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
China, which has been increasing its influence in international diplomacy, might gain access if the United States withdraws from the U.N. Supporters claim that Trump’s charisma and “peace through strength” strategy will help influence foreign leaders to his will, despite the fact that he hasn’t provided many specifics on foreign policy during his second term. He is anticipated to provide Israel with substantial backing in its wars against Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and he has pledged to end the situation in Ukraine.
The United States’ decision to reduce its financial contributions to the United Nations and to leave important international organizations and accords, such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, is one of the main worries at the organization. The immediate concern is U.S. finance. With 22% of the core U.N. budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget, Washington is the greatest contributor to the organization, followed by China.
When Trump first took office, he proposed to slash almost one-third of U.S. aid and diplomacy budgets, which included drastically reducing support for international organizations and U.N. peacekeeping. However, Congress, which determines the federal budget of the United States government, resisted Trump’s plan.
A U.N. spokesperson said at the time the proposed cuts would have made it impossible to continue all essential work. “The U.N. secretariat has known that they could face a Trump comeback all year. There has been prudent planning behind the scenes on how to manage potential U.S. budget cuts,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group. “So (U.N. Secretary-General Antonio) Guterres and his team are not totally unprepared, but they know the next year will be extremely hard,” he said.
A question regarding Trump’s approach to the U.N. once he assumes office in January was not immediately answered by his staff. Trump campaigned for reforms during his first term, claiming that the United States was unfairly bearing the cost of the U.N. Washington has a history of being late with payments, and the United States owed over $600 million for the core budget and $2 billion for peacekeeping when Trump left office in 2021. President Joe Biden’s administration currently owes $862 million for the peacekeeping budget and $995 million for the core U.N. budget, according to U.N. records.
“I don’t want to pre-empt or speak about policies that may or may not happen, but we work with member states in the way we’ve always worked with member states,” Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.
Trump was skeptical of multilateralism and hostile of the UN throughout his first term. In addition to withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, a global climate change agreement, and the Iran nuclear deal, he declared his intention to leave the World Health Organization.
He overturned the U.S. decision to leave the WHO and brought the U.S. back to UNESCO and the climate pact when Biden took over in 2021. If elected, Trump would rescind the climate agreement, according to his campaign.
