Future relations between UN and US hang in balance ahead of Trump’s presidency
Washington is the United Nations’ largest contributor, providing 22 per cent of its core budget and 27 per cent of the peacekeeping budget.
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NEW YORK: With days to go before incoming United States President Donald Trump takes office, some analysts believe that he will not work with the United Nations to help solve global issues.
The last time the former president was in the White House from 2017 to 2021, he suspended funding for the UN health and family planning agencies and left its cultural organisation and primary human rights body.
He also labelled the UN an “'underperformer” and told the rest of the world he expected more from the global body.
Trump’s biggest frustration with the UN, however, has been the level of funding it receives from his country.
Washington is the UN's largest contributor, providing 22 per cent of its core budget and 27 per cent of the peacekeeping budget.
“Ever since it became clear that Trump was running for a second term in office, colleagues in the UN and member states here have been preparing and thinking through contingencies about the funding issue in particular,” said Daniel Forti, senior UN analyst at International Crisis Group - a non-profit, non-governmental organisation aimed at preventing and resolving deadly conflict.
US-CHINA RELATIONS
However, one thing that could give Trump reason to continue supporting the UN is that a US retreat could leave the door wide open for China at a time when it has been building its influence in global diplomacy.
Forti believes the relationship between the US and China will be a defining issue for the UN over the next four years.
"We've come to understand that the Trump team is going to view … asserting US primacy vis-a-vis China as one of its guiding ethos at the UN over the next few years,” he said.
“On a lot of … political and policy issues inside the Security Council, inside the General Assembly, we're likely to see the US try and view the UN as a primary arena to manage its competition with China,” he added.
UKRAINE WAR
Forti said he believes the area of most difference between the incoming and outgoing US administrations will be their approaches to the war in Ukraine.
President Joe Biden has been a fierce advocate for Ukraine, while Trump has said he wants a deal to end the war as soon as possible.
Trump has also appointed Congresswoman Elise Stefanik - who has publicly criticised the international body several times - as ambassador to the UN.
Stefanik, the fourth-ranking House member, in October last year called for a “complete reassessment” of US funding for the UN.
Such potential cooling down of relations between the UN and the US is concerning for Simon Adams, who leads the US-based Center for Victims of Torture.
“We need the United States being in the room and being a player that's trying to work with others and trying to find global solutions,” he noted.
“Instead, what we've got is Donald Trump, who's barely interested in the UN except as a public speaking platform, and a potential US ambassador to the UN, who seems like she's partially committed to defunding it and undermining it.”
