India, which is among the largest troop contributors to the UN peacekeeping force, has voiced concern over the delay and non-payment of funds to contributor countries and closed missions, terming it as “bad faith” if the reserves are used for other purposes. India has been among the few countries to have fully paid its dues to the UN on time.
The UN, however, owed India USD 38 million, which is among the highest it has to pay to any country, for peacekeeping operations as of March 2019.
Highlighting India’s priority issues for deliberations in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, Permanent Representative Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said the financial situation of the UN Peacekeeping, particularly the non-payment or delayed payment of arrears to the Troop/Police Contributing Countries (T/PCCs) remains a cause of concern.
While some “ameliorative measures”, introduced last year, did provide a temporary reprieve, he said the “dismal practice” of delaying payments to T/PCCs seems to be making a comeback. He also highlighted the “festering” matter of payments for so called “closed” peacekeeping missions, saying non-payment of peacekeeping dues, for years after the end of peacekeeping missions, ensures that there is no closure to this matter.
