US plans $725 million payment towards its large UN debt

WASHINGTON/GENEVA — The Trump administration has started the process to transfer $725 million to the United Nations, a congressional notification seen by Reuters showed, a move aid experts said was a welcome step towards paying billions in dues owed.

There was no immediate response from Washington to questions about the reasons for the payment from an administration which has slashed funding to many U.N. agencies and blasted the global body for not living up to its potential.

The money - mentioned in an August 4 State Department notification letter to Congress that has not been reported - is set to go through before an expected speech by U.S. President Donald Trump to the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month.

'It keeps the ship afloat a little longer'

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this year that the U.N. faced "imminent financial collapse" due to unpaid contributions from member states, and the global body has brought in large budget cuts.

The $725 million would be less than 20 percent of the more than $4 billion that the U.N. said in May it was owed by the United States — though Washington has said that total figure is much lower and that it has made some payments.

Eugene Chen, a former U.N. official, told Reuters such a transfer would help pay U.N. salaries for a period, but might not cover them all. "It keeps the ship afloat a little longer," he said.

"If the U.S. does not make further payments it will likely lose its voting rights in January," he added.

Under article 19 of the U.N. Charter, a member state loses its voting rights in the General Assembly if its arrears exceed two years in annual fees, although grace periods are possible.

A significant transfer now could avert the need for immediate spending cuts, Ronny Patz, an expert in U.N. finance with German think tank IDOS, said.

"If they pay a big chunk, the U.N. still runs on zero reserves but it gets through the year," Patz added. “If they don’t pay, the U.N. might really be in trouble for the last two or three months of the year in terms of paying salaries and keeping the doors open.”

The U.S. is the biggest contributor to the U.N. budget, but under the Trump administration it has refused to make mandatory payments to regular and peacekeeping budgets, and has slashed voluntary funding to U.N. agencies with their own budgets.

Washington has also withdrawn from dozens of U.N. and other international agencies.

The U.N. had been counting on collecting around 90 percent of dues from its 193 members for this year's budget, its Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan said last month.

As of August 18, some 129 members had paid in full, a U.N. document showed. China, the number 2 contributor after Washington, was also absent from the list.

The State Department said in its August 4 letter it was obligating a total of $725 million for the U.N.'s regular budget.

The U.S. State Department and the U.S. diplomatic mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for comment by email on Friday.

In May, the U.N. said the more than $4 billion owed to it by Washington included $2.04 billion for the regular budget, $2.2 billion for current and past peacekeeping missions, and $44 million for U.N. tribunals.

Washington has not transferred around $153.4 million in what it calls "policy-based withholdings". That included $10.6 million meant for the Human Rights Council — which Washington disengaged from last year alleging an anti-Israel bias — and funds for the U.N. Palestinian Refugee Agency.

The 80-year-old institution has been undergoing a decisive reform and cost-cutting exercise known as "UN80" amid its financial crisis.

It has already cut its 2026 budget by 9.2 percent and transferred over 2,000 jobs out of expensive cities like Geneva and New York to lower-cost hubs.