geneva, switzerland
Reuters
—
The U.N. secretary-general told member states that the U.N. is at risk of “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid fees and budget provisions forcing international organizations to return unspent funds, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly spoken of the worsening liquidity crisis at the UN, but this is his harshest warning yet, and it comes as the United States, the UN’s main contributor, is retreating from multilateralism on many fronts.
“The crisis is deepening, threatening the implementation of programs and putting us at risk of financial collapse, and the situation will get even worse in the near future,” Guterres said in a letter to ambassadors dated January 28.
The United States cut voluntary funding to UN agencies and rejected mandatory payments to regular and peacekeeping budgets.
US President Donald Trump has said the United Nations has “huge potential” but is not delivering on it and has launched a peace commission, which some fear will weaken the legacy international body.
(Founded in 1945, the United Nations has 193 member states and works to maintain international peace and security, promote human rights, promote social and economic development, and coordinate humanitarian aid.
“The decision not to honor the assessed contributions, which cover a significant part of the approved regular budget, has been formally announced,” Secretary-General Guterres said in the letter.
He did not mention which states, and a UN spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
According to United Nations rules, contributions are determined by each member state’s economic size. The US accounts for 22% of the core budget, followed by China with 20%.
But Guterres said, without naming names, that unpaid dues had reached a record $1.57 billion by the end of 2025.
“Either all member states meet their obligations to pay in full and on time, or they need to overhaul their fiscal rules to prevent imminent financial collapse,” he said.
Last year, Guterres launched a reform task force, UN80, aimed at cutting costs and improving efficiency. To that end, states have agreed to cut their 2026 budgets by about 7% to $3.45 billion.
Still, Guterres warned in his letter that the organization could run out of money by July.
One problem is a rule now considered outdated that requires international organizations to refund hundreds of millions of dollars in unused dues to states each year.
“In other words, we are stuck in a Kafkaesque cycle where we are expected to give back cash that doesn’t exist,” Guterres said, referring to author Franz Kafka, who wrote about oppressive bureaucratic processes.
