UN Owes $265 Million To Countries For Peacekeeping Efforts, India On Top With $38 Million Pending Payment

The United Nations owes India $38 million, the highest payment to be made to any country, for the peacekeeping operations as of March 2019, UN Secretary General Antonio Guteress has said, reports Economic Times.

Guteress, in his report on improving the financial situation of the UN, said that as of 31 March 2019, the United Nations owes $265 million to countries contributing their troops and police in the active peacekeeping missions of the world body.

The UN owes $38 million to India, followed by Rwanda ($31 million), Pakistan ($28 million), Bangladesh ($25 million) and Nepal ($23 million), Guteress said in his report.

The UN Secretary-General expressed concern that the arrears to troop- and police-contributing (TCCs/PCCs) could rise to $588 million by June 2019 “in the worst case scenario”.

According to the report, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin had earlier this year said that financial situation of the United Nations Peackeeping, particularly the non-payment/delayed payment of the arrears to the troop- and police-contributing countries, is a “cause for concern”.

He had said that the practice of delaying payments to TCCs/PCCs, even as contractual obligations to others are met, cannot continue unaddressed.