UN chief announces new 'UN80 Initiative' to improve efficiencies amid shrinking resources, uncertain
United Nations (PTI): UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has announced a new initiative aimed at improving efficiencies at the 80-year-old world organisation and making it more cost-effective, as he voiced concern over shrinking resources and liquidity crisis amid an environment of "uncertainty and unpredictability".
The ‘UN80 Initiative’ will come up with proposals in areas of rapidly identifying efficiencies and improvements in the way the UN works; thoroughly reviewing implementation of all mandates given to the UN by member states, which have significantly increased in recent years and a strategic review of deeper, more structural changes and programme realignment in the UN system.
“Our world is facing challenges on every front. Since the United Nations reflects that world in all its aspects, we feel it in all our work. These are times of intense uncertainty and unpredictability,” Guterres said here on Wednesday in his remarks to announce the initiative.
Guterres has appointed a dedicated internal task force led by Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder – and composed of principals representing the entire UN system.
Voicing concern that the world body’s “resources are shrinking across the board – and they have been for a long time,” Guterres said that for at least the past seven years, the United Nations has faced a liquidity crisis because not all Member States pay in full, and many also do not pay on time.
Guterres stressed that it is essential that an organisational system as complex and crucial as the United Nations subjects itself to “rigorous and regular scrutiny to assess its fitness for purpose in carrying out its goals efficiently.
“And this 80th anniversary year of the United Nations is a prime moment to expand all our efforts, recognizing the need for even greater urgency and ambition,” the UN chief said.
When asked if the UN80 initiative was a UN version of the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk in US President Donald Trump’s administration, he replied in the negative.
“First of all, nothing to do with that kind of initiative. We are talking about completely different processes, methodologies and objectives. This is a continuation and an intensification of work that we have always been doing,” Guterres said as he cited examples of efforts being undertaken in the system to be more effective and cost-effective.
Trump, in his second term in the White House, announced that America will withdraw from and end funding to certain UN organizations. The US said it would not fund the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) or the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and that the United States will not satisfy any claims to pay 2025 assessments or prior arrears by these organizations.
“The United States helped found the United Nations (UN) after World War II to prevent future global conflicts and promote international peace and security. But some of the UN’s agencies and bodies have drifted from this mission and instead act contrary to the interests of the United States while attacking our allies and propagating anti-Semitism,” the White House had said.
The Trump administration also said that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.
Guterres noted that the recent cuts that were made in relation to humanitarian aid and development cooperation, not only by the United States but by other countries, even if in a smaller dimension “naturally have led to the need by the agencies that deliver those services to reduce staff, to shrink their dimension and to eliminate many activities. But again, this is not a problem for the United Nations. I mean, agencies are resilient and so, when necessary, they adjust to the circumstances.”
The UN chief added that even as thousands of staff have been laid off by several agencies, this will pose a problem not for the UN but for the people.
“The UN is resilient. The UN can adapt itself to the circumstances. The problem is for the people – I mean, if more people will die with HIV/AIDS or malaria or with TB. If [the cutoff of] humanitarian aid to fragile communities will make their life even more difficult and will have dramatic consequences, not only from a life-saving perspective but from the perspective of the most basic forms of well-being, that is something we cannot correct.
"We can adapt the UN, consolidate the UN, make the UN more effective and more cost-effective. What we cannot do is solve the problems of the people that we no longer are able to assist, for lack of resources," he said.
The UN General Assembly approved a USD 3.72 billion budget for the United Nations for 2025. The US is the single largest financial contributor to the UN, paying 22% of the regular budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget. The approved budget for UN Peacekeeping operations for the fiscal year 1 July 2024 - 30 June 2025 is USD 5.6 billion and at 26.95%, the US is the largest contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations.
In January this year, India paid USD 37.64 million to the United Nations Regular Budget for 2025, joining the "honour roll" of 35 Member States who paid their regular budget assessments in full and on time to the UN. India has consistently been among the countries to pay its contributions to the UN budget on time and in full.
Guterres stressed that the need is great and the goal is clear: an even stronger and more effective United Nations that delivers for people and is tuned to the 21st century.
"Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet – they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world. We must ensure value for money while advancing shared values," he said.
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Nothing changes, India will be paying tariffs; we will not be paying tariffs: Trump after SC ruling
New York/Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump said “nothing changes” in the trade deal with India in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict against his sweeping tariffs, as he responded to the ruling by announcing an additional 10 per cent global levies on items imported into the US.
In a major setback to Trump’s pivotal economic agenda of his second term, the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 verdict written by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled that the tariffs imposed by Trump on nations around the world were illegal and that the President had exceeded his authority when he imposed the sweeping levies.
Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court justices who ruled against him, calling them "fools and lapdogs”. “The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I'm ashamed of certain members of the Court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country,” Trump said in a news conference at the White House Friday, just hours after the verdict came in.
At the news conference, Trump again repeated his claim that he had solved the war between India and Pakistan last summer using the threat of tariffs, asserted that New Delhi, at his request, “pulled way back” from buying Russian oil and said that the ruling would have no effect on the trade deal that Washington and New Delhi announced earlier this month. He also spoke about his “great” relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ALSO READ: Supreme Court strikes down Trump's sweeping tariffs, upending central plank of economic agenda
When asked whether the framework for an interim agreement on trade with India, expected to be signed soon, stands in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, Trump said “nothing changes”.
“Nothing changes. They'll (India) be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So deal with India is they pay tariffs. This is a reversal for what it used to be. As you know, India and I think Prime Minister Modi is a great gentleman, a great man, actually, but he was much smarter than the people that he was against in terms of the United States, he was ripping us off. So we made a deal with India. It's a fair deal now, and we are not paying tariffs to them, and they are paying tariffs. We did a little flip,” Trump said.
“The India deal is on…all the deals are on, we're just going to do it” in a different way, Trump said.
To another question on his relationship with India, he said, “I think my relationship with India is fantastic and we're doing trade with India. India pulled out of Russia. India was getting its oil from Russia. And they pulled way back at my request because we want to settle that horrible war where 25,000 people are dying every month,” Trump said.
He said his relationship with Prime Minister Modi “is, I would say, great.”
Trump then went on to repeat the claim, twice within the press conference, that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan using tariffs.
“I also stopped the war between India and Pakistan. As you know, there were 10 planes were shot down. That war was going and probably going nuclear. And just yesterday, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said President Trump saved 35 million lives by getting them to stop,” Trump said.
“And I did it largely with tariffs. I said, ‘Look, you're going to fight, that's fine, but you're not going to do business with the United States, and you're going to pay a 200% tariff, each country’. And they called up and they said, ‘we have made peace’,” Trump said.
On Thursday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace on Gaza. At that meeting, Trump had said he threatened to put 200 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they didn’t stop the fighting, reiterating the claim he stopped the war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Earlier this month, as the US and India announced they reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on trade, Trump issued an Executive Order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed on India for its purchases of Russian oil, with the US President noting the commitment by New Delhi to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and purchasing American energy products.
Under the trade deal, Washington would charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on New Delhi, lowering it from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.
In his remarks at the press conference, Trump said he used tariffs to end the war between India and Pakistan, as he lashed out at the Supreme Court for its decision to strike down his sweeping tariffs imposed on countries around the world.
“Tariffs have likewise been used to end five of the eight wars that I settled. I settled eight wars, whether you like it or not, including India, Pakistan, big ones, nuclear, could have been nuclear,” Trump said.
“Prime Minister of Pakistan said yesterday at the great meeting that we had the peace board. He said yesterday that President Trump could have saved 35 million lives by getting us to stop fighting. They were getting ready to do some bad things. But they've given us great national security, these tariffs have,” he said.
Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling, Trump signed a Proclamation imposing a “temporary import duty” to “address fundamental international payments problems and “continue the Administration’s work to rebalance our trade relationships to benefit American workers, farmers, and manufacturers.”
The Proclamation imposes, for a period of 150 days, a 10 per cent ad valorem import duty on articles imported into the United States. The temporary import duty will take effect on February 24 at 12:01 a.m.
