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UN members agree on peace budget of $6.5b
Published: Jun 30, 2021 06:18 PM
United Nations Photo: VCG

United Nations Photo: VCG


The 193 member states of the United Nations reached an agreement on Tuesday over the budget for peacekeeping operations, avoiding an imminent shutdown of missions, according to diplomatic sources.

A draft resolution was adopted by the committee of the UN General Assembly which deals with financial affairs.

The approved budget is estimated at $6.5 billion and covers 12 months from July, according to the sources. The amount is roughly the same as 2020.

"All requests from all delegations were simultaneously dropped, allowing for adoption of a resolution," said a diplomat on condition of anonymity.

The UN General Assembly has formally approved the resolution on Wednesday, allowing missions deployed around the world with around 100,000 peacekeepers to continue.

"We will now have the necessary spending authority from July 1 without any operational shutdowns, which is good news," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

"Curtailment of operations would have limited the ability of the missions to implement their mandates, including for example supporting countries in COVID-19 response, protection of civilians, and other critical missions activities."

"Our chronic inability to respect deadlines puts the entire peacekeeping architecture in unprecedented jeopardy," EU diplomat Thibault Camelli said.

The annual peacekeeping budget is separate from the main UN operations budget of more than $3 billion. That budget mandate runs from January to December and also often ends up the subject of complex negotiations.