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Sri Lanka pays its UN dues in full for 2025, while US owes world body $2.8 billion
UNITED NATIONS – At a press briefing last week, Sri Lanka was singled out for paying its UN dues in full for 2025—one of only 93 countries on a list of honourees (out of a total of 193 member states).
“We say thank you to our friends in Colombo for their full payment to the regular budget. Sri Lanka’s payment brings the number of fully paid-up member states in 2025 to 93,” said UN spokesperson Stéphanie Tremblay at the daily noon briefing. As a developing country, Sri Lanka’s assessed contributions—its annual membership dues—are at the low end, amounting to about $1.3 million. Still, the annual dues of the Maldives, categorised as one of the 39 small island developing states (SIDS), are even lower, amounting to about 136,000 dollars.
Faced with a cash crisis, mostly due to non-payments by member states, the UN is currently on an austerity drive and has cut back on its annual expenditures and plans a hiring freeze.
But the biggest single defaulter is the US, which, as the largest contributor, pays 22% of the UN’s regular budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget.
Currently, the US owes $1.5 billion to the UN’s regular budget. And, between the regular budget, the peacekeeping budget, and international tribunals, the total amount the US owes is a hefty $2.8 billion.
But a hostile White House is unlikely to pay its outstanding dues since it has already withdrawn the US from the UN Human Rights Council, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Climate Treaty, while threatening to pull out of UNESCO and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Perhaps the worst is still to come.
In a leaked White House memo, the Washington Post reported last week the Office of Management and Budget has proposed gutting the State Department’s budget by almost 50%, closing a number of overseas diplomatic missions, slashing the number of diplomatic staff, and terminating funding for the UN, NATO and 20 other organisations, while contributions to a handful of organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Civil Aviation Authority, would remain.
The White House memo also describes a total cut in funding for international peacekeeping missions, citing “recent mission failures” without providing details.
The threat against the UN has been reinforced following a move by several Republican lawmakers who have submitted a bill on the US exit from the UN, claiming that the organisation does not align with the Trump administration’s “America First” agenda.
The top 10 contributors to the UN’s regular budget, based on assessed contributions, are the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Brazil, and Russia.
The regular budget for 2025 is $3.72 billion—around $120 million more than the $3.6 billion figure unveiled by Secretary-General António Guterres in October 2024—and $130 million greater than the Organisation’s 2024 budget. The total budget appropriation for 2025 amounts to $3,717,379,600.
After the US, China is the second-largest contributor, assessed at 18.7% of the regular budget.
Every three years, the 193 UN member states collectively decide on a formula—known as the Scales of Assessment—to determine how much each country should contribute to the UN’s regular budget and to peacekeeping operations. For the regular budget, each country’s contribution is based on a formula intended to represent a country’s “capacity to pay”. The formula starts by using a country’s share of global gross national income. Adjustments are then applied for factors like their debt and population, with a minimum and maximum determined for least developed countries and the largest contributor—the U.S.
Meanwhile, according to a CNN report on April 17, the Trump administration is also looking at closing nearly 30 overseas embassies and consulates as part of the proposed changes to its diplomatic presence abroad.
An internal State Department document recommends closing 10 embassies and 17 consulates. Many of the posts are in Europe and Africa, though they also include ones in Asia and the Caribbean. They include embassies in Malta, Luxembourg, Lesotho, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. The list also includes five consulates in France, two in Germany, two in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one in the UK, one in South Africa and one in South Korea.
The document proposes that the closed embassies’ duties be covered by outposts in neighbouring countries.
State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce would not comment on the internal document or plans to drastically cut the State Department.
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