Trump flexes US muscle to the UN as single largest contributor to its annual budget

Mumbai: This is not the first time that United States President Donald Trump has threatened cuts to US contributions to the annual United Nations Organisation (UNO) budget and that of its affiliated organisations. Still today according to the UN Secretariat, US is still the single largest contributor the world body and 29 of its affiliate organisations. Significant portion of its annual contributions goes to UNHCR, WFP, IAEA, WHO, UNPKO, UNICEF and UNDP besides others like UNAIDS.

The stand-off between the US and the UN over US cuts in its contribution to the world body that began in 1990’s ended in 2001 with both agreeing to US cutting down its annual contribution from 25% to 22%.

US president Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he was stopping US funding of the World Health Organisation (WHO) after accusing it of being ‘very China centric’. The stopping of its contribution to the world health body could well have a huge impact on the global ability to fight pandemics like COVID-19.

Also Read: Trump executes his threat, stops funding of ‘China centric’ WHO

Out of the total US contribution nearly 40% plus goes to UNHCR and World Food Program (WFP), 30% plus goes to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 25% plus to UNPKO (UN Peace Keeping Operations),18% plus to WHO (technical), 15% plus to UN (core UN & security) and 10% plus to UN Development Program (UNDP). The US also makes significant contributions to UN-HIV/AIDS program, a research and control program of the UN.

As of March, 2020, out of the 193 member states of the UN, 174 member states have paid their regular budget assessments in full. As per Article 17 of the UN Charter, UN General Assembly determines the basis of payment of the expenses of the organisations. The contribution of each of the member states is determined by the Gross National Product (GNP) of that member state.

Since the US GNP is pegged at 27%, its contribution to the UN is now at 22%. Currently, India ranks 11^th ahead of Norway in the list of member states making significant contributions to the UN annual budget.

The rest of the top 12 major contributing member states in percentage terms is as follows – China 12.005%, Japan 8.564%, Germany 6.090%, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland (UK-NI) 4.567%, France 4.427%, Canada 2.734%, Australia 2.210%, Netherlands 1.356%, Sweden 0.906, India 0.834% and Norway 0.754%.

In US Dollar terms the contributions for 2020 are as follows – US 678,613,826 million $, China 336,780,502 million $, Japan 240,248,915 million $, Germany 170,844,920 million $, UK-NI 128,119,663 million $, France 124,192,194 million $, Canada 76,697,867 million $, Australia 61,997,911 million $, Netherlands 38,040,347 million $, Sweden 25,416,338 million $, India 23,396,496 million $ and Norway 21,157, 229 million $.

It is certainly not the first time that he has issued any alleged threats of retaliations to other countries. Besides, the alleged threat to India over the supply of anti-Malarial Hydroxycholoquine (HCQ) tablets, President Trump has wagged his finger at China over the trade war, France and European Union over Iran trade deal, Saudi Arabia and Russia over oil deal, UK over a trade deal and just raising tensions in Australia and Mexico over a phone call.

As far as the so-called threat to India on April 9, sources in Government of India revealed that 70% of the world production of the HCQ is done by India (20 crore tablets per month). On March 25, India had imposed a ban on the export of HCQ and put the drug in Schedule H1 list, taking it off the retailer’s shelf. On April 5, a day before US President Donald Trump officially made the request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supply of HCQ, India had lifted the ban it had imposed on the export.

By then India had received bulk orders of the HCQ drug from US, Brazil, Spain, Australia and 30 other countries, that also included Gulf countries and even Malaysia, which had criticised India over abrogation of Article 370 and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Much before that India taking note of its humanitarian role had lifted its ban on its exports.