UNITED NATIONS \u2014 The United States will no longer shoulder more than a quarter of the multibillion-dollar costs of the United Nations\u2019 peacekeeping operations, Washington\u2019s envoy said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeacekeeping is a shared responsibility,\u201d U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said at a Security Council debate on peacekeeping reform. \u201cAll of us have a role to play, and all of us must step up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. is the biggest contributor, assessed about 28.5 percent of this year\u2019s $7.3 billion peacekeeping budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing a 25 percent cap in a U.S. law, Haley said it will be the limit \u201cmoving forward.\u201d The U.S. Mission to the U.N. later said her remarks apply to the current peacekeeping budget year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second-largest contributor, China, is assessed a bit over 10 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.N. now runs 15 peacekeeping missions worldwide. U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has complained before about the cost and pressed to cut this year\u2019s budget. It is $570 million below last year\u2019s, a smaller decrease than the U.S. wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re only getting started,\u201d Haley said when the cut was approved in June. It followed a $400 million trim the prior year, before Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haley said Wednesday that the U.S. will work to make sure cuts in its portion are done \u201cin a fair and sensible manner that protects U.N. peacekeeping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The General Assembly sets the budget and respective contributions by vote. Spokesmen for Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declined to comment on Haley\u2019s remarks, noting that the 193 U.N. member states will decide the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drawing over 105,000 troops, police and other personnel from countries around the world, the peacekeeping missions operate in places from Haiti to parts of India and Pakistan. Most are in African countries. The biggest is in Congo, where the Security Council agreed just Tuesday to keep the 16,000-troop force in place for another year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some missions have been credited with helping to protect civilians and restore stability, but others have been criticized for corruption and ineffectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Mali, where 13,000 peacekeepers have been deployed since 2013, residents in a northern region still \u201cdon\u2019t feel safe and secure,\u201d Malian women\u2019s rights activist Fatimata Toure told the Security Council on Wednesday. She said violence remains pervasive in her section of a country that plunged into turmoil after a March 2012 coup created a security vacuum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have still not felt (the peacekeeping mission) deliver on its protection-of-civilians mandate,\u201d though it has helped in some other ways, Toure said. \u201cWe feel, as civilians, that we\u2019ve been abandoned, left to our fate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peacekeeping also has been clouded by allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation. An Associated Press investigative series last year uncovered roughly 2,000 claims of such conduct by peacekeepers and other U.N. personnel around the world during a 12-year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maintaining peace has become increasingly deadly work. Some 59 peacekeepers were killed through \u201cmalicious acts\u201d last year, compared to 34 in 2016, Guterres said Wednesday. A U.N. report in January blamed many of the deaths on inaction in the field and \u201ca deficit of leadership\u201d from the world body\u2019s headquarters to remote locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guterres said Wednesday that the U.N. is improving peacekeepers\u2019 training, has appointed a victims\u2019 rights advocate for victims of sexual abuse and is reviewing all peacekeeping operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, he said, more needs to be done to strengthen peacekeeping forces and ensure they are deployed in tandem with political efforts, not instead of them. They also shouldn\u2019t be overloaded with unrealistic expectations, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLives and credibility are being lost,\u201d he said. \u201cA peacekeeping operation is not an army or a counterterrorist force or a humanitarian agency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representatives from many countries also stressed a need for more focused, better prepared peacekeeping missions and more robust political peace processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.N., its member states and countries that host peacekeeping missions all \u201cneed to shoulder our responsibilities,\u201d said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country arranged the debate as this month\u2019s Security Council president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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