UN faces insolvency risk as US and China delay membership payments

The United Nations is facing the risk of financial collapse after the United States and China, its two largest contributors accounting for roughly 42% of the organization’s budget financing, delayed payment of their membership dues.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Washington owes the organization more than $4 billion and has reduced its contributions to a range of programs, including the World Health Organization, citing efforts to combat inefficient spending.

Beijing, meanwhile, remains $455 million in arrears despite recently contributing $850 million.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the organization had effectively entered a race against insolvency and could exhaust its resources entirely by mid-August.

Guterres described that possibility as “highly realistic.” While China has indicated its intention to meet its obligations, the United States has tied future funding to sweeping reforms, including spending cuts, workforce reductions and broader cost-saving measures.

Facing an acute funding shortage, the UN has already implemented unprecedented austerity measures. These include closing some offices, eliminating around 3,000 positions within the Secretariat, limiting the working hours of interpreters and translators, and reducing budgets for peacekeeping missions.

The organization is also accelerating the withdrawal of military personnel from several regions, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while delaying payments owed to countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh that contribute troops to “blue helmet” peacekeeping operations.

The UN’s financial difficulties are further complicated by structural constraints within the organization. It is unable to borrow externally, and management has limited authority to cut personnel costs, which account for roughly 70% of expenditures.

At the same time, the organization’s 193 member states generally favor expanding, rather than narrowing, its nearly 40,000 programs and mandates.

The current financing system is also adding pressure to the budget. Member-state contributions are calculated according to the size of their economies, but the US share is capped at 22%, while China’s share has risen in recent years to more than 20%.

In addition, rules requiring unused funds to be returned to member states, even if they have not fully paid their assessed contributions, create what Guterres described as a “Kafkaesque cycle.”

US officials have stressed that Washington is not abandoning multilateral cooperation but is seeking greater efficiency from the institution.

Addressing the UN Security Council, US State Department representative Michael G. Desombre said the issue was about “prioritizing clarity and results over inefficiency and empty rhetoric.”

The report noted that the United States remains the largest donor to humanitarian aid programs, although overall aid volumes have declined noticeably.

Amid the UN’s financial strain, other donor countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, have also reduced their funding for the organization.