Pentagon Official: U.S. to Cut Contributions to U.N. Peacekeeping Missions by Ellen Mitchell - The Hill
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian official on Wednesday pushed greater burden sharing for United Nations peacekeeping missions, saying the U.S. will drop its contributions by 3 percent.
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan stressed that while the U.S. will now look to pay 25 percent of the roughly $8 billion it costs to run the missions annually, the country still pledges to bolster training and equip peacekeepers.
“The United States remains the largest financial contributor and capacity-builder for peacekeeping missions. We currently provide more than 28 percent of assessed costs and have spent more than $1 billion training peacekeepers over the last decade,” Shanahan said at the U.N. Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial conference in Vancouver.
“We will continue to provide a quarter of all costs into the future.”
The 3-percent dip was first announced in White House budget documents released in March. The administration also said it wants to cut State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development funding by 28.5 percent.
In 2016, the U.S. gave about $2.2 billion through the State Department to the U.N. to help run the 92,000-strong peacekeeping force. The amount is more than the combined dollars from the next top three contributors: China, Japan and Germany…