US delinquent on payments as UN faces ‘worst cash crisis’ in a decade

The Trump administration owes the United Nations about $1 billion in payments at a time when the multilateral organization said it is facing its “worst cash crisis” in a decade, USA Today reports.

The U.S. owes $381 million in back payments and $674 million for 2019. Of the $1.3 billion owed to the U.N. by member states, the U.S. is responsible for more than $1 billion.

{mosads}U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a letter to member states on Tuesday calling the current situation the “worst cash crisis facing the United Nations in nearly a decade.”

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, said the U.N. “runs the risk of depleting its liquidity reserves by the end of the month and defaulting on payments to staff and vendors.”

“The Secretariat could face a default on salaries and payments for goods and services by the end of November unless more member states pay their budget dues in full,” Dujarric said in a statement.

A U.S. mission official told USA Today that the administration will pay “the vast majority of what we owe to the regular budget this fall, as we have in past years.”

President Trump, who has been an open critic of the U.N., weighed in Tuesday by tweeting: “So make all Member Countries pay, not just the United States!”

So make all Member Countries pay, not just the United States! https://t.co/IVbE4MqBVl

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019

Overall, 70 percent of member nations have reportedly paid their dues, compared with 78 percent at this time last year.

In a Sept. 24 speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump told fellow world leaders that “the future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots.”