UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. General Assembly has agreed to a significant cut in the budget for the United Nations’ far-flung peacekeeping missions, a reduction the Trump administration fought hard to achieve though it wanted an even larger decrease.
After lengthy and heated negotiations, the assembly’s powerful budget committee agreed to a $7.3 billion budget for 14 peacekeeping missions for the year starting July 1.
The 193-member world body voted by consensus Friday to approve $6.8 billion. It agreed to an additional $500 million for two missions that are in the process of downsizing — the joint U.N.-African Union mission in Sudan’s western Darfur region and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said after the budget committee’s agreement early Thursday that “we’re only getting started.”