The 193 member countries of the United Nations reached an agreement on Tuesday on the budget for peace operations to avoid a freezing of missions from Thursday, AFP learned from diplomatic sources.
A draft resolution was adopted by the 5th committee of the UN General Assembly which deals with financial affairs.
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The approved budget is estimated at some 6.5 billion dollars and covers 12 months as every year, from July 2021 to June 2022, according to the same sources.
Its amount is broadly the same as that adopted last year.
"All requests from all delegations were simultaneously dropped, allowing a resolution to be passed,"
one diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
The UN General Assembly is due to formally approve the resolution on Wednesday that will allow missions deployed around the world with around 100,000 peacekeepers to continue spending and ensure the continuity of operations.
"Chronic disability"
"We will now have the authorization for the necessary expenses from July 1 without any interruption of operations, which is good news," said
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
“The reduction in operations would have limited the ability of missions to implement their mandates, including, for example, support to countries in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, protection of civilians and other critical activities of missions, ”
he recalled. According to diplomats, China - the second largest financial contributor up to 15% behind the United States (25%) - and African countries had notably contributed to the blocking of the UN, announced on Monday, to adopt its budget.
"China pays so much today that it wants to control the slightest spending and has taken budget lines hostage until a comprehensive agreement is reached,"
said a diplomat on condition of anonymity. When questioned, the Chinese mission to the UN defended itself from any obstruction.
"As a responsible country, China always plays a constructive role"
and has promoted
"the progress of the 5th committee in the final phase of its work,"
assured a spokesperson for the mission. In a statement, the European Union, whose financial contributions from its members contribute 24% of the budget for peace operations, strongly deplored the lack of consensus earlier on the draft text.
“Our chronic inability to meet deadlines puts the entire peacekeeping architecture in unprecedented danger
,
”
said Thibault Camelli, member of the EU mission to the UN. In the future,
"we hope to return to more constructive approaches
," he added, without citing any countries. The peace operations budget is separate from the annual UN operating budget ($ 3.07 billion), which runs from January to December.