UN owes India USD 85 million for contribution towards peacekeeping

The UN owes India USD 85 million for its contribution towards peacekeeping operations. India is the highest net contributor of troops to the UN peacekeeping missions since inception. India has contributed over 185,000 troops till date and has participated in 48 of the 69 missions so far.

“The largest amount owed was to Pakistan at USD 97 million; followed by Ethiopia at USD 87 million; India at USD 85 million; Bangladesh at USD 84 million; Rwanda at USD 55 million; and Nepal at USD 44 million,” Under-Secretary- General for Management Yukio Takasu told the the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) in the General Assembly.

The debt obligation comes at a time when India has been repeatedly stressing on the need for the Security Council to consult troop contributing countries before drawing up peacekeeping mandates given that troops now have to function is increasingly difficult and hostile conflict situations across the world’s hot-spots. As of September 2015, 85 peacekeepers were killed. “The human costs of this failing are evident in both the rising number of casualties among UN peacekeepers, as well as an alarming growth in the number of civilians, now reaching 60 million, according to the Secretary General, whose lives are being disrupted by the conflicts that an ineffective Security Council is powerless to resolve,” India’s ambassador to UN Asoke Mukerji had said during his address to the UN where he called it ineffective, powerless.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered to increase India’s troop-contribution by 10 per cent when he participated at the UN summit on peacekeeping last month, Mr Mukerji added. India has demanded to implement in “letter and spirit” the UN Charter provisions that require the UNSC to consult with troop-providing countries when issuing peacekeeping mandates.

The largest contributors to peacekeeping are South Asian countries. Urging member states to make their full payments as soon as possible, he said a few nations accounted for the bulk of the outstanding amount, with the US owing USD 813 million, Brazil USD 124 million and Venezuela USD 35 million, Mr Takasu said.

The US led the list with an obligation of USD 29 million, followed by Russia with USD 11 million in unpaid assessments; Brazil at USD 9 million; Indonesia at $4 million; Venezuela with USD 4 million; and 94 other States owing USD12 million. As of October 2, India had paid up its full contribution.

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