UN facing bankruptcy as US and China withhold billions in funding

The United Nations is heading towards bankruptcy as the United States and China withhold billions in payments, with Secretary-General António Guterres warning of a "race to bankruptcy" and "a very real prospect of the financial collapse of our organisation", according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The US has failed to pay billions owed and has exited dozens of UN programmes and agencies, including the World Health Organisation, as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to cut wasteful spending. The US is more than US$4 billion in arrears.

China has compounded the crisis by slow-walking its payments, despite declaring itself the organisation's leading defender. Beijing still owes US$455 million, even after injecting almost US$850 million this week during a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The UN relies on US and Chinese money for 42 per cent of its basic funding. On its current trajectory, the UN says it will be out of cash by mid-August.

The UN has made historically large spending cuts, closed offices and eliminated a record 3,000 secretariat posts. It has shortened interpreter hours, powered down escalators and accelerated troop drawdowns in African hot spots to conserve cash.

The US has overhauled its voluntary assistance to the UN, channelling aid through a single department and earmarking US$3.8 billion so far, down from more than US$10 billion annually in recent years.

Other traditional donors are also cutting funding due to austerity in the UK and Germany and political shifts in Sweden and the Netherlands.

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