- Envoy says funding shortfalls could affect troop readiness, rapid deployment.
- Pakistan deployed 250,000 personnel on 48 missions over six decades.
- Reform must make missions flexible and at the same time protect civilians.
NEW YORK: Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, warned that peacekeeping operations are being directly undermined by a deepening UN liquidity crisis, which has also drawn stark warnings from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Earlier this month, Guterres said the world body could face “imminent financial collapse” unless member states pay their dues in full and on time or revise budget rules that force the UN to return unused funds even when it is short of cash.
By the end of 2025, the UN posted a record $1.57 billion in unpaid dues, a shortfall that threatens program delivery and peace operations globally.
Speaking at the opening of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, Ambassador Iftikhar warned that the financial shortfall was affecting mandate delivery, protection of civilians, deterrence of violence and security of peacekeepers.
“UN peacekeeping remains an indispensable instrument for maintaining international peace and security, but faces growing political, operational and economic pressures that require collective action,” the ambassador said.
Commemorating Pakistan’s contribution, the ambassador said: “The country hosts one of the oldest UN peacekeeping missions, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, and has been among the largest and longest-serving troop contributors for more than six decades.”
Paying tribute to 182 Pakistani peacekeepers who lost their lives under the UN flag, he said over 250,000 Pakistani peacekeepers had served in 48 missions across four continents.
The envoy warned that declining financial commitments and declining missions without a clear strategic direction could affect the readiness of troop-contributing countries, including standby arrangements, rapid deployment capabilities and specialized units.
He called reform necessary, saying peacekeeping must become more agile, focused and better equipped to deal with new threats, including through technology and stronger partnerships.
He emphasized that protection of civilians, deterrence against violations and ceasefire monitoring and verification remain core tasks, adding that lack of political progress should not be used as a pretext to withdraw missions.
What does the UN chief ask the member states to do?
Without naming the United States, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said earlier this month that the UN’s “cash-flow problem” could be solved if member states that have an obligation to pay pay.”
The crisis comes at a time when US President Donald Trump has launched a ‘Peace Agency’ with himself as lifetime chairman, which some fear could undermine the UN, a 193-member body formed in the ashes of the Second World War, which works to maintain international peace and security.
Under Trump, as well as refusing to make mandatory payments to the UN’s regular and peacekeeping budgets, the US has cut voluntary funding to UN agencies with their own budgets and moved to leave US organisations, including the World Health Organisation.
In December, the UN appealed for an aid budget for 2026 that was only half the size it had hoped for in 2025, acknowledging a plunge in donor funding at a time when humanitarian needs have never been greater.
Guterres last year launched a reform task force, the UN80, that sought to cut costs and improve efficiency. The approved 2026 regular budget is about $200 million higher than he proposed, but about 7% lower than the approved 2025 budget.
Guterres warned in his letter that the UN could run out of cash by July, citing a “Kafkaesque” demand to credit hundreds of millions of dollars in unused quotas to states each year, even though it never received the money. UN officials hope to revise this “bizarre” rule, which Guterres has called “a race to bankruptcy”.
