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The United Nations said Monday that it is waiting to learn how much the United States intends to pay of nearly $4 billion in arrears and when the payments will arrive, as the U.N. tries to prevent a funding shortfall from disrupting its operations. The comment came after U.N. leadership warned last week that the world body could face “imminent financial collapse” if it does not secure payments or overhauls its financial rules.
The arrears figure includes money the U.S. owes for both the United Nations’ regular operating budget and a separate budget for peacekeeping operations, according to a U.N. official cited by the Associated Press. The U.N. said the United States owes $2.196 billion to the regular operating budget, including $767 million for this year, and it also owes $1.8 billion for peacekeeping.
The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz told the U.N. that the Trump administration planned to make a significant down payment on the U.S. arrears in a matter of weeks, though the final amount was still being determined. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday that Guterres has been in touch with Waltz “for quite some time,” and that the U.N.’s controller also has been in contact with U.S. officials.
Dujarric said the U.N. is withholding any timetable until it receives more concrete details on the payment plan. “We’re waiting to see exactly when payments will be made and in what amount,” he told reporters.
Guterres’ warning last week was tied to the possibility that the U.N.’s regular budget cash could run out by July. In a letter to all member nations, Guterres said cash for the U.N.’s regular operating budget could run out by July, which the Associated Press reported could “dramatically affect” the organization’s operations.
The issue has also been tied by the U.N. and in the Associated Press report to broader U.S. actions regarding international bodies. The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump has said the U.N. has not lived up to its potential, that the Trump administration did not pay anything to the United Nations in 2025, and that it withdrew from U.N. organizations including the World Health Organization and UNESCO while pulling funding from dozens of others.
U.N. officials have said 95% of the arrears to the regular budget come from the United States. The next largest reported amount came from Venezuela, which the U.N. official said owes $38 million and has lost its right to vote in the General Assembly for being two years in arrears.
The Associated Press reported that nearly 60 countries had paid their annual dues by a Feb. 8 deadline, as the U.N. seeks to manage the gap left by the U.S. arrears while waiting for the administration’s down-payment plan to be finalized.