അംഗരാജ്യങ്ങള്‍ ഫീസ് അടയ്ക്കുന്നില്ല..ഐക്യരാഷ്ട്രസഭ തകരുമോ? | Around and Aside - video Dailymotion

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അംഗരാജ്യങ്ങള്‍ ഫീസ് അടയ്ക്കുന്നില്ല..ഐക്യരാഷ്ട്രസഭ തകരുമോ? യു.എന്നിനെ ഇല്ലാതാക്കുകയാണോ ചിലരുടെ ലക്ഷ്യം? ഐക്യരാഷ്ട്രസഭയിലെ ഇന്ത്യയുടെ മുന്‍ പ്രതിനിധി രുചിര കാംബോജ് എറൗണ്ട് ആന്‍ഡ് എസൈഡില്‍.. #AroundandAside #UN #RuchiraKamboj #Internationalnews #TPSreenivasan #Asianetnews #news   Asianet News Live : https://www.youtube.com/live/4wExBtPQ-JA  Subscribe to Asianet News YouTube Channel here ► http://goo.gl/Y4yRZG for Malayalam News Live updates  Website     ► http://www.asianetnews.com Facebook  ► https://www.facebook.com/AsianetNews Twitter       ► https://twitter.com/AsianetNewsML  Download India’s No. 1 Malayalam Live News Asianet Mobile App:  ► For Android users: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vserv.asianet  ► For iOS users: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/asianet-news-official/id1093450032  Asianet News - Kerala's No.1 News and Infotainment TV Channel  Check out the latest news from Kerala, India and around the world. The latest news on Mollywood, Politics, Business, Cricket, Technology, Automobile, Lifestyle & Health and Travel. More on asianetnews.com

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00:15Welcome to A Round and A Side, A Diplomatic Journey.

00:22The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, recently made a dire prediction

00:30about the United Nations.

00:32He said, UN is in a race to bankruptcy and it faces imminent financial collapse.

00:41He went on to say that UN could run out of cash by July 2026.

00:51This is a major crisis.

00:53On the one hand, the UN is losing credibility as a peacemaking organization.

00:59And on the other hand, it may not have any funding.

01:04So we have to consider whether this can be rectified.

01:08Whether paid contributions will be paid in full and in time by the members.

01:15And whether the UN can find a new situation where it becomes thinner and leaner.

01:23To discuss this, we have Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, who was, till recently, the permanent representative

01:30of India to the United Nations.

01:33Welcome Ruchira Kamboj, good to see you again.

01:36Thank you, sir.

01:37Great to see you again.

01:38So tell us a little bit about the financing structure and how it works.

01:45Well, I think the financial situation of the United Nations is quite severe.

01:50Undoubtedly so.

01:51And you are absolutely right.

01:52Earlier this year, the Secretary General wrote to member states when he said that the UN was

01:57close to a financial collapse.

01:59And he has even given a date, July 2026.

02:03So roughly, if you look at it, in 150 days, if member states don't pay up or in full, the

02:10UN could really be in a very dire situation.

02:14Now, what's new about this?

02:16In the past, also, Secretary Generals have warned about the financial situation of the

02:21United Nations.

02:21But this time, it is beyond that.

02:24It's not just a budget shortfall.

02:26It is a serious financial or liquidity crisis where the UN is clearly under stress.

02:31No, the difficult, the financial difficulty of the situation has been highlighted several

02:36times.

02:37I think it was during President Bush's time that he willfully withdrew US contribution

02:44to the United States at one point in order to force the UN to become thin and also to

02:51reduce expenditure.

02:52We used to call them, at that time, this is Cinderella's stepmother's technique, that

03:00you deny sustenance to Cinderella so that she improves.

03:04And this is what it was called at that time.

03:06But it was not so serious.

03:07We could make adjustments.

03:10The UN secretariat plays around with funds all the time.

03:14They sometimes, you know, wait for payments to be made.

03:19For example, peacekeeping operations are not always paid directly, immediately.

03:24So these things were going on all these years.

03:27But still, the UN survived all these 80 years.

03:30But why has it come to such a pass at this time?

03:33Well, I think the answer to that is quite simple.

03:35Simply because member states have not paid up their dues at all or in full.

03:41And when that situation arrives, you arrive at the present point.

03:45The United States, as all of us know, is the largest financial contributor to the United

03:50Nations.

03:50And if you look at a total of what they owe to the United Nations, both in terms of the

03:57general budget and the peacekeeping budget, it's almost four billion US dollars, as we

04:02are told.

04:02Of course, very recently, just last week, they've paid up a certain amount, 160 million.

04:08But clearly, that's not enough.

04:10There are other debtors, too, and there are member states who have not paid up in full.

04:15In fact, there was a figure that we all saw that in early February this year, only about

04:2060 countries.

04:228th of February was the deadline, right?

04:24Yes.

04:24And that's not a good figure if only about 58, 60 countries have paid up their contributions

04:30on time and in full.

04:31So, clearly, member states are not paying up on time and in full.

04:35And because there is over-dependence, if I may say so, on a small group of member countries,

04:41that further exacerbates the situation.

04:43But why is it that so many countries which have been paying in the past have stopped paying?

04:48Is that a political message?

04:50Well, there is undeniably a deep disappointment in terms of the peace and security mandate of

04:56the United Nations.

04:57If you just look around, whether you look at the COVID pandemic or you look at Ukraine

05:01and Gaza, of course, the peace and security mandate of the United Nations, it is far from

05:06being fulfilled.

05:08There are more conflicts today than at any other time since World War II.

05:13But as far as the other UN is concerned, the sectoral bodies, they are still performing

05:18and they are very, very critical.

05:21So, I'm not too sure whether there is a complete disillusionment with the United Nations across

05:26the board.

05:26For the smaller states, and they constitute about 56% of the membership of the United Nations,

05:33the UN still remains very important.

05:36As to why others have not paid up or in full or on time, there could be various reasons,

05:43one of which could be that the Global South, many, many countries face stresses in many other

05:50directions, funding for development, debt situation and so forth.

05:55But because the UN financing system is structured in a fashion whereby there is an over-dependence

06:02on a small group of major contributors, I think this really hits you hard if one of those

06:07contributors does not pay up its amount in full or on time.

06:11Are they trying to discipline the UN by doing this or is it simply that they are not in a

06:16position to pay?

06:17Well, that's the million-dollar question.

06:20Perhaps there is some disillusionment with the United Nations.

06:24And the very fact that the United States has led on another structure that has coincidentally

06:31met just yesterday, a plurilateral grouping called the Board of Peace is indicative of perhaps

06:38a sense of disappointment that the UN has not been able to fulfill its peace and security mandate.

06:43And there I do think there would be many supporters. Where there are some supporters is the work that

06:50the sectoral bodies do.

06:52You mean specialized agencies?

06:53The specialized agencies. Yes, the UNDP, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and so forth.

06:59They are still doing excellent work provided, of course, they have the funds and provided they have the staff.

07:04That has also become an issue today.

07:06But those payments are separate. They are not in the UN fund. They pay separately to these organizations.

07:12They have their own.

07:13Yes, absolutely. Yes.

07:15So is there something which can be done about recruitment? Is it possible to reduce the staff?

07:21Well, I think you've touched upon a very important issue. As far as recruitment at the United Nations is concerned,

07:28Article 101 of the UN Charter makes it very clear that there should be a balance between professional merit

07:35and geographical representation. So very often you have a lot of staff recruited because a certain region must have

07:42a certain number of seats. But at the same time, I would like to think still that merit remains the

07:48paramount factor.

07:50It is also true part of UN folklore, as you say, that Secretary General Boutros Ghali's claim to have said

07:57that only about 50% of the UN works,

08:00which means that the other 50% is dead wood. But I would not like to imagine so.

08:05I would like to imagine that the UN achieves a good balance between merit and geographical representation.

08:11But the point that you make is right, because geographical representation has become a political issue,

08:17has always been a political issue. And very often, you know, we are told that, no, this is your candidate

08:25is good.

08:25But it is also important that we take a candidate from some other region. So that factor is very much

08:32there,

08:33as part of the recruitment processes in the United Nations are concerned.

08:39Because of the geographical balance, we have a situation where an Indian in a normal way cannot get into the

08:45system,

08:46because India is over-represented when it comes to professional courses.

08:51Yes, as we are always told, and as the other member states say, they are also told likewise.

08:57So everyone seems to have a grouse here. And I think the question also arises because very often you find

09:03that

09:03for certain countries, certain seats seem to be eternally there. Like for UN DESA,

09:09there's always a Chinese at the level of Undersecretary General.

09:13As far as peacekeeping is concerned, it is invariably a French official who holds those positions.

09:19Department of Peacebuilding and Political Affairs, it's always the United States.

09:23So I think these questions are very valid. The entire recruitment process is quite valid.

09:30But if you go by the spirit and letter of the Charter, well, it has to be a balance between

09:34merit and geographical representation,

09:36and not just the latter.

09:38Yes. So that is one issue. And the other issue is changes take a long time to be implemented in

09:45the UN.

09:46There are several sections, several divisions of the UN who do not have the kind of importance it used to

09:53have earlier.

09:53Is that one of the issues?

09:55No, indeed. I think this is a very key point. There is a lot in the UN that is not

10:00needed strictly.

10:01You know, there's a lot of bureaucracy. And like any other bureaucracy, the UN bureaucracy is very slow.

10:07And there's a lot of duplication. And also the various departments of the United Nations, they are not coordinated.

10:13The left and the right hand often don't know what they are doing, or very often they are duplicating what

10:19the other one is doing.

10:20So we have all of those problems.

10:21Let's hope that the arrears will be paid, because they are arrears, they are not something which can be further

10:27negotiated.

10:28But is there scope for this whole idea of assessed contributions being revised in some way?

10:35I believe there is an ongoing discussion, because I think among the issues that the Secretary General raised in his

10:41letter to Member States in January this year,

10:44apart from drawing attention to the very dire financial situation of the United Nations,

10:49he also clearly took up the related issue of revising some of the archaic financial frameworks of the United Nations.

10:57And I do believe that the Fifth Committee of the United Nations will be looking into this issue very closely,

11:02so that we might be able to come up with some solution and revise the financial framework in a manner

11:10that it works better.

11:12For example, prioritizing better the programs and activities of the United Nations,

11:17or matching mandates and resources, or modern budgeting.

11:22All of this can turn this crisis moment into perhaps something good.

11:27So we'll just have to wait and see.

11:29The process is quite long drawn.

11:31And as everyone knows, when many Member States, and this is 193, are sitting down to discuss this issue, it

11:38will take time.

11:39It won't be easy.

11:40But I think this is also the moment to look at some of these structural issues.

11:44If it is cosmetic, then I'm afraid we won't get anywhere.

11:49But if you really do a structural overhaul of the financial framework of the United Nations,

11:55we might get something good out of this.

11:57But having made this prediction, has the Secretary General taken any measures to amend or change things around?

12:04Or is it just a prediction and he's hoping that payments will be made?

12:08Is that the situation now?

12:09Well, I think the Secretary General has been extremely vocal about this.

12:13And at the very start of UNGA 18, September, he had made it quite evident that there was a development

12:19crisis within the United Nations,

12:21which may be read as a financial crisis.

12:23And to that end, a lot of work, as I understand this, has been done.

12:28For example, a lot of offices have been relocated out of New York to Germany, to Spain, to Africa.

12:37For example, look at the UNFPA.

12:40A lot of those posts, some of those posts have been relocated to Nairobi in Kenya.

12:46But does it become cheaper than UNDP?

12:48Do those posts become cheaper because of the 11s or less?

12:50Yes, I believe so.

12:52Yes, definitely, definitely.

12:53We are told that there's day-to-day cost-cutting as well.

12:56I mean, you see fewer personnel posted, for example, at the entrance of the United Nations.

13:01You're cutting back on, perhaps, security guards and so forth.

13:05All of that is happening.

13:06And there is also talk about cutting back further on posts, even up to 20%, if the budget situation does

13:14not improve.

13:14So, action is being taken because there is, frankly, no other way to do this.

13:19What will happen in July, according to you?

13:22This will all be made up by then?

13:23Well, I don't think it will be lights out.

13:27The UN will still continue to function.

13:29And as I've already mentioned, I understand that last week there was a certain payment made by the United States.

13:38I'm told 160 million.

13:40So, the UN will continue to function, but it will have to function in a manner that is more prudent,

13:48more streamlined, that goes without saying.

13:52Thinner and leaner United Nations.

13:53Is it possible, is the question?

13:55I think they have no choice.

13:57They'll have to be thinner, leaner, meaner, without a doubt, because the present structures and the way the organization is

14:06functioning, I think this will not be countenanced longer.

14:11The bloating, the staff situation, a lot already has been done.

14:17And people are talking about an operational slowdown because with fewer people, it does impact programs and delivery.

14:24Unless something dramatic happens in member states, particularly the number one contributor to the United Nations pays up all those

14:33arrears and continues to pay on time in future, the United Nations will just have to manage with much less

14:42and still try to continue to be more effective,

14:46particularly in the operational programs that it manages so well, the UNDP, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, UNHCR and so

14:57forth.

14:57And this situation has been further compounded by the fact that the U.S. has withdrawn from several agencies, organizations,

15:05and also they have stopped their own bilateral programs like USAID, etc.

15:10So the situation in developing countries, particularly in Africa, where they are dependent on USAID for medicines, for HIV, AIDS,

15:18etc., must have become already very grave.

15:22So United Nations may have to step in where the member state has failed.

15:27So that would be an additional responsibility that may come about.

15:31Yes, that's quite possible.

15:33The U.S. withdrawal has impacted multilateralism very deeply.

15:37And it's also at a psychological level, if I may say so, to have a specter whereby the number one

15:44financial contributor withdraws suddenly from 31 organizations and does not necessarily always speak in very complementary terms in as far

15:53as the work of the United Nations is concerned.

15:55That does hit the organization, apart, of course, from the operational activities.

16:00When the U.S. withdrew from UNIDO, you know, we went from Vienna on a representation to the Secretary General

16:06to find out why they were withdrawing from UNIDO.

16:10And the reason has gone very strange.

16:12They said that UNIDO is competing with United States industries and machinery and work.

16:17I mean, this is astonishing because what the UNIDO does is in very small scale.

16:22And they are not, UNIDO is not competing with the United States in international, you know, the financial situation.

16:28So, but then they withdrew.

16:30They did not come back.

16:31They are not members of UNIDO.

16:32UNESCO also, they did it once, but they came back.

16:35But UNIDO is without.

16:36So, this kind of withdrawal of the U.S. from this and the creation of the Board of Peace, so

16:43gives you an impression that there is going to be a kind of shift from one to the other.

16:48There could be a really small organization which would deal only with peace and security and with the kind of

16:55dispensation that the President Trump has spelt out.

16:59And he being the chairman of the Board of Peace forever.

17:03So, these kind of situations are really, you know, ominous for the United Nations.

17:09And that may be one of the reasons why people are not paying their dues.

17:12Yes, no, that's true because you've touched upon an important point.

17:15This is also the era of plurilaterals and minilaterals.

17:19And precisely because the UN has not lived up to expectations, has not lived up to promise.

17:25India itself is a member of close to 20 minilaterals or plurilaterals, likewise other countries.

17:32So, member states find these more agile, more nimble, more flexible, and frankly, they do good business.

17:40These are not new, of course.

17:42Historically, also, you've had minilaterals in the past.

17:46I think the Concert of Europe in 1815 was the first modern minilaterals when five great powers,

17:53I think it was at that time Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France met from time to time

17:58to review developments within Europe and retain the balance of power.

18:02That worked for about 40 years.

18:04Even in Indochina, we were leading that effort, you know, outside the…

18:09It was part of the United Nations operation, but it was a mini kind of group.

18:14But are you also including in them, you know, organizations like BRICS, etc., or G20?

18:20Yes, yes.

18:21BRICS, G20 would be plurilateral organizations, and I think a lot of work is being done there, too.

18:27But you have the smaller ones also, like Quad, like I2U2, Paxilica, for example.

18:33All of these are smaller, more nimble organizations.

18:36And the funding is separate for them.

18:37The funding is separate for them.

18:39It won't come into this situation.

18:41Some of them are being discredited, like the United States does not like BRICS.

18:45And they say G20, they are going to host, but they will not invite Saudi Arabia to it,

18:51or things like that.

18:52So if these organizations have been doing well,

18:57so this prejudice against them will also work against the peace-building exercise we are doing all the time.

19:04Well, what I feel is that both these groupings, multilateralism, of course, and plurilateralism,

19:10I think they need not be exclusionary.

19:13They can be mutually reinforcing.

19:15They can exist side by side.

19:17And I've just given an example.

19:19It's not that this is a new phenomenon.

19:21It's existed in the past as well.

19:22The problem is that one is working and the other is not.

19:26We have to make both tracks work.

19:27So there is a scope for further improving the working arrangements, financial arrangements, peacekeeping operations.

19:35Like, for example, peacekeeping operations, India, for example, or the UN owes a lot of money to India.

19:41We are running the peace cooperation with Indian budget because they are not paying.

19:46So this kind of situation also will jeopardize various activities of the United Nations.

19:51So there is a real need for a review.

19:54Of course, the reviews are going on all the time.

19:56But in this context, do you expect that there will be a serious effort to deal with these issues before

20:02July?

20:03Well, I should imagine there should be a serious effort because the situation is very serious and demands a very

20:09serious effort on the part of member states.

20:11Because as you and I will agree, I think at the end of it, it boils down to political will.

20:17And that is very important.

20:19You can draw attention to a financial crisis or a particular situation at the United Nations.

20:24But if there is no political will that matches that crisis or that problem, then we are really in trouble.

20:29So I should imagine that member states are very serious because this is a serious crisis.

20:34As we have agreed in the past, also, Secretaries-General have drawn attention to the financial situation of the United

20:41Nations.

20:42But this time, it is far more dire, far more serious.

20:45And the Secretary-General has himself used the words financial collapse, which sounds pretty alarmist to me without meaning.

20:53Bankruptcy.

20:54Race to bankruptcy, not race against.

20:57He has been very consistent and vocal about this.

21:00It's not that he suddenly said so.

21:02I think through the course of this year, he has been very vocal about it.

21:06And he has been warning member states to pay up their amounts in full, on time, their arrears.

21:13So I think this follows a trend and a pattern.

21:15And now he's sort of drawn attention to something that is really very, very serious.

21:20So the point I was making was that it's not enough asking for ideas to be paid, but also show

21:25that the United Nations is trying to reduce expenditure and becoming thinner and leaner.

21:30And that kind of an effort is made, there might be more confidence.

21:33Thank you very much for joining me today.

21:35It's a very interesting discussion.

21:37Thank you very much.

21:40Thank you very much.

22:14Thank you very much.

22:20If we are here today,

22:22we will be the first time to come.

അംഗരാജ്യങ്ങള്‍ ഫീസ് അടയ്ക്കുന്നില്ല..ഐക്യരാഷ്ട്രസഭ തകരുമോ? | Around and Aside

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