UN agencies in anxiety over prospects of Trump cutting funds
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GENEVA: UN agencies are in anxiety over harms they will face when Donald Trump returns to power for the second time a couple of days later, according to news agency AFP.
In his first term, Trump wreaked havoc by slashing the US contributions to United Nations operations and agencies.
More than cutting funds, Trump sent shockwaves by storming out the UN Human Right Council, quitting the Paris climate accord and UNESCO alongside withdrawing from the World Health Organisation.
He carried out all these measures only in the later part of his term but Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group reportedly told AFP that Trump would not wait that long this time.
Facing budget pressures, the UN is in anxiety over Trump cutting funds from being the largest donor.
Emphasising the importance of US involvement, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres called the cooperation between the US and UN its ‘critical pillar’.
Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who is to become Trump’s UN ambassador, signaled at president-elect’s attitude to UN when she called it ‘a corrupt, defunct and paralysed institution’.
Fear lingers over the possibility of Republicans in Congress bringing a bill to completely defunding the UN.
However, Jussi Hanhimaki, an international history professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said that the scenario is unlikely because the US would not want to lose it leverage in UN.
Trump’s decision led to China and its allies expanding their influence in the UN bodies that the US left unoccupied, especially the Human Rights Council.
Sheba Crocker, who is the outgoing US ambassador to UN, pointed to how the US rivals are promoting their interest in Geneva.