Powers: It’s unwise to cut US funds to UN

NEW YORK: US Ambassador Samantha Power (pic) warned that cutting US funding to the United Nations would be “extremely detrimental” to American interests, one week before Donald Trump’s administration takes office.

Power said in her final news conference that “countries like Russia and China” would benefit from Washington’s reduced standing at the United Nations if funding were withdrawn, as some Republicans have called for after the UN Security adopted an anti-Israel resolution.

“We lead the world in part by lea- ding at the UN,” said Power, who is stepping down next week after four years as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations.

“If we were to tie our hands behind our back or strip this organisation of programming” to support peace mediation or humanitarian work, “this would be extremely detrimental to US interests,” she said.

Power made the statement after a bill was introduced in the US Senate that would slash all US funding to the United Nations until a Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settle- ments is repealed.

The United States abstained from the vote. By not vetoing the measure outright, critics said, the US essentially allowed the Security Council resolution to pass.

“The US needs the UN,” Power said. “The UN goes to places that the US will not go,” she argued, pointing to peace missions in Africa.

The US is by far the UN’s biggest financial contributor, providing 22% of its operating budget and funding 28% of peacekeeping missions, which currently is at US8bil (RM35.7bil).