IN HIS DEBUT AT THE UN, TRUMP GIVES THE ASSEMBLY A POLITICAL TIP.
Focus on people, not bureaucracy: U.S. president
President Donald Trump made his debut at the United Nations on Monday, using his first appearance to urge the 193-nation organization to reduce bureaucracy and costs while more clearly defining its mission around the world.
But while Trump chastised the UN — an organization he sharply criticized as a candidate for president — he said the United States would “pledge to be partners in your work” in order to make the body “a more effective force” for peace across the globe.
“In recent years, the United Nations has not reached its full potential due to bureaucracy and mismanagement,” said Trump, who rebuked the UN for a ballooning budget. “We are not seeing the results in line with this investment.”
The president pushed the UN to focus “more on people and less on bureaucracy” and to change “business as usual and not be beholden to ways of the past which were not working.” He also suggested that the U.S. was paying more than its fair share to keep the New York-based world body operational.
But he also complimented steps the United Nations had taken in the early stages of reform efforts and made no threats to withdraw U.S. support. His measured tone stood in stark contrast to his last maiden appearance at a global body, when he stood at NATO’s new Brussels headquarters in May and scolded member nations for not paying enough and refused to explicitly back its mutual defence pact.
While running for office, Trump labelled the UN as weak and incompetent, and not a friend of either the United States or Israel. But he has softened his tone since taking office, telling ambassadors from UN Security Council member countries at a White House meeting that the UN has “tremendous potential.”
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said Trump’s criticisms were accurate at the time, but that it is now a “new day” at the UN. An organization that “talked a lot but didn’t have a lot of action” has given way to a “United Nations that’s actionoriented,” she said, noting the Security Council votes on North Korea this month.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed a massive package of changes, and Haley said the UN is “totally moving toward reform.”
The United States is the largest contributor to the UN budget, reflecting its position as the world’s largest economy. It pays 25 per cent of the UN’s regular operating budget and over 28 per cent of the separate peacekeeping budget — a level of spending that Trump has complained is unfair.
The Trump administration is conducting a review of the UN’s 16 far-flung peacekeeping operations, which cost nearly $8 billion a year. Cutting their costs and making them more effective is a top priority for Haley.