UN owes India $55 mn for peacekeeping ops

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations owes a total of $55 million to India for its contribution to the world body’s peacekeeping operations, the second highest outstanding payment to any member country.

Under-secretary-general for management Yukio Takasu, in his semi-annual overview of the Organisation’s finances, told reporters that the top troop contributing countries to UN peacekeeping operations such as Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Egypt “deserve timely payment” for their contributions and participation in UN peacekeeping.

As on March 31, the UN owed $777 million to member states for peacekeeping operations. The UN owes India $55 million for peacekeeping operations, the second highest amount, followed by $53 million to Bangladesh and $41 million to Pakistan.

Takasu said member states who are owed outstanding payments “deserve to be reimbursed” and the organisation is “making every effort” to make the payments to the nations.

However, as on May 3, India was among the 39 member states, which had fully paid all assessments it owed to the UN. India’s Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin pointed out the lag in paying dues despite the fact that the same member states had paid their dues in full.

“Who pays on time and who is owed huge dues by UN,” he tweeted, referring to the amount the UN owed to India and other countries for peacekeeping at a time when these nations had paid their dues on times.