United States President Donald Trump made his debut at the United Nations in New York on Monday, urging the world body to reform by cutting down on bureaucracy while clearly defining its mission around the world. Some 120 states, signed up to the US-led initiative in support of UN reforms. The president urged the UN to focus “more on people and less on bureaucracy”
But while Trump chastised the U.N. — an organization he sharply criticized as a candidate for president — he said the United States would “pledge to be partners in your work” in order to make the body a more effective force for peace across the globe.
“In recent years, the United Nations has not reached its full potential due to bureaucracy and mismanagement,” said Trump, who rebuked the U.N. for a ballooning budget. “We are not seeing the results in line with this investment.”
The president pushed the U.N. to focus “more on people and less on bureaucracy” and to change “business as usual and not be beholden to ways of the past which were not working.” He also suggested that the U.S. was paying more than its fair share to keep the New York-based world body operational.
But he also complimented steps the United Nations had taken in the early stages of reform efforts and made no threats to withdraw U.S. support.
His measured tone stood in stark contrast to his last maiden appearance at a global body, when he stood at NATO’s new Brussels headquarters in May and scolded member nations for not paying enough and refused to explicitly back its mutual defense pact.
While running for office, Trump labeled the U.N. as weak and incompetent, and not a friend of either the United States or Israel. But he has softened his tone since taking office, telling ambassadors from U.N. Security Council member countries at a White House meeting that the U.N. has “tremendous potential.”
Trump more recently has praised a pair of unanimous council votes to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its continued nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests. Guterres, who has presented a broad reform agenda external link for the 193-member organization since joining last year, also spoke at Monday’s meeting.
The US is the biggest UN contributor, providing 22% of its $5.4 billion (CHF5.2 billion) biennial core budget and 28.5% percent of its $7.3 billion peacekeeping budget. It is also the major funder of major UN specialised agencies like the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), which are headquartered in Geneva.
Nonetheless, he said the US would "pledge to be partners in your work" to make the UN "a more effective force" for peace.
He also praised Guterres and complimented the steps the UN had taken in the early stages of the reform process and made no threats to withdraw his nation's support.
