عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

UN Launches Reform Initiative as it Faces Funding Cuts

(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
TT
20
TT

UN Launches Reform Initiative as it Faces Funding Cuts

(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The UN chief launched a new initiative Wednesday to reform the United Nations as it approaches its 80th anniversary, saying the 193-member global organization needs an urgent update to deal with major funding reductions and still tackle the world's challenges.
Secretary-General António Guterres dismissed any relationship between his UN80 Initiative and cuts to foreign aid and other programs that US President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk say will make the US government more efficient, The Associated Press reported.
“We are talking about completely different processes, methodologies and objectives,” Guterres told reporters. “This is a continuation and an intensification of work that we have always been doing.”
He said the UN initiative’s objective will be to present member states with proposals for improving the way the organization works, reviewing the increasing number of mandates from the UN Security Council and General Assembly, and making structural changes to streamline operations.
Guterres and his predecessors in past decades have struggled to reform the United Nations, which was established following World War II, and bring it into a modern era with different powers, new technology and greater global divisions.
One key problem is that while the secretary-general is the UN’s chief executive, power rests with the 193 member nations that have very different ideas about the UN and the world.
The United Nations also has faced sharp criticism for its failure to preserve international peace and security — its key mission — with critics pointing to the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and Congo, to name a few. The UN has been key to providing humanitarian aid to millions of people and for its work helping refugees and children.
Trump signed an executive order saying some UN agencies and bodies have drifted from their mission to promote peace and prevent future global conflicts and ordered a review of their operations.
“I’ve always felt that the UN has tremendous potential,” Trump has said. “It’s not living up to that potential right now. ... They’ve got to get their act together.”
Stressing that the United Nations reflects the world, Guterres said these are times of intense uncertainty and unpredictability.
He said the UN’s work is affected by multiplying conflicts, inadequate progress in reducing poverty, widespread flouting of international law, violations of human rights and the lack of guardrails for new technologies, including artificial intelligence — to name a few.
“And all of them are aggravated by major reductions of funding for humanitarian aid and development cooperation,” the secretary-general said. “In many cases, these obstacles are fueling dangerous levels of geopolitical tensions and divisions.”
Guterres didn’t name any countries, but the Trump administration has dismantled the US Agency for International Development, which was in charge of humanitarian aid, and cut 83% of USAID's programs. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, also are reducing humanitarian aid.
He said the UN’s resources have been shrinking, pointing to its liquidity crisis for at least the past seven years because not all member states pay their yearly dues, and many don’t pay on time.
Guterres said the UN80 Initiative is not only about reforming the UN but about “better serving people whose very lives depend on us” and “taxpayers around the world who underwrite everything we do.”
The initiative will cover not only the UN Secretariat but all its funds and agencies and offices in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna. It will be led by UN Undersecretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder, who will head a task force of top officials from the UN system, Guterres said.
The UN budget for 2025, which was adopted last December, is $3.72 billion. The US, with the world's biggest economy, is expected to pay 22%. China, with the second-largest economy, just had its share raised to 20%.
Guterres said he hopes to move as soon as possible to take action in areas where he has authority and will urge member states “to consider the many decisions that rest with them.”

Most Viewed

 
World

Greenland’s Election Winners Push Back against Trump’s Wish to Take Control of the Island

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the Demokraatit party, participates a TV debate before the upcoming elections in Nuuk, Greenland, March 8, 2025. (AP)
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the Demokraatit party, participates a TV debate before the upcoming elections in Nuuk, Greenland, March 8, 2025. (AP)
TT
20
TT

Greenland’s Election Winners Push Back against Trump’s Wish to Take Control of the Island

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the Demokraatit party, participates a TV debate before the upcoming elections in Nuuk, Greenland, March 8, 2025. (AP)
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the Demokraatit party, participates a TV debate before the upcoming elections in Nuuk, Greenland, March 8, 2025. (AP)

Greenland’s likely new prime minister on Wednesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s effort to take control of the island, saying Greenlanders must be allowed to decide their own future as it moves toward independence from Denmark.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen’s Demokraatit, a pro-business party that favors a slow path to independence, won a surprise victory in Tuesday’s parliamentary election, outpacing the two left-leaning parties that formed the last government. With most Greenlanders opposing Trump’s overtures, the campaign focused more on issues like healthcare and education than on geopolitics.

But on Wednesday Nielsen was quick to push back against Trump, who last week told a joint session of Congress that the US needed Greenland to protect its own national security interests and he expected to get it "one way or the other."

"We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future," Nielsen, 33, told Britain’s Sky News. "And we want to build our own country by ourselves."

That didn't stop Trump from suggesting during a Thursday Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that Greenland’s election that it was "very good" for "us" and "the person who did the best is a very good person, as far as we’re concerned."

Moving toward independence from Denmark Greenland, a self-governing region of Denmark, has been on a path toward independence since at least 2009, when the government in Copenhagen recognized its right to self-determination under international law. Four of the five main parties in the election supported independence, though they disagreed on when and how to achieve it.

The island of 56,000 people, most from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, has attracted international attention since Trump announced his designs on it soon after returning to the White House in January.

Trump is focused on Greenland because it straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and is home to the US’s Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operations. Greenland also has large deposits of the rare-earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.

Trump said during the meeting with Rutte that "Denmark’s very far away" from Greenland and questioned whether that country still had a right to claim the world's largest island as part of its kingdom.

"A boat landed there 200 years ago or something. And they say they have rights to it," Trump said. "I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t think it is, actually."

Trump said US control of Greenland could be important for national security reasons and even suggested NATO should be involved, but Rutte demurred. Trump nonetheless noted that the US already has a considerable military presence in Greenland and added, "Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers going there. I don’t know."

Despite that, Trump’s overtures weren’t on the ballot.

The 31 men and women elected to parliament on Tuesday will have to set priorities for issues such as diversifying Greenland’s economy, building infrastructure and improving health care, as well as shaping the country’s strategy for countering the president’s America First agenda.

Demokraatit won 29.9% of the vote by campaigning to improve housing and educational standards while delaying independence until Greenland is self-sufficient. Four years ago, the party finished in fourth place with 9.1%.

Nuuk resident Anthon Nielsen said the party’s victory would be good for the country.

"Most politicians want Greenland to be independent," he said. "But this party who won, they don’t want to hurry things so everything must be done right."

Carina Ren, head of the Arctic program at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, said the results show that Greenlanders tried to ignore Trump and focus on issues that were important to them.

"The voters have been able to drag down all the drama, all the alarmist talk from the outside to say, ‘Well, this is about our everyday lives, our everyday concerns as citizens. Where are we going, how are we going to develop our society from the inside.’"

Now Demokraatit will have to turn its attention to forming a governing coalition.

Naleraq, the most aggressively pro-independence party, finished in second place, with 24.5% of the vote. It was followed by Inuit Ataqatigiit, which led the last government, at 21.4%.

"What approach to independence will win the day will ultimately depend on if Demokraatit decides to form a coalition government, and if so, with which party," said Dwayne Menezes, managing director of the Polar Research and Policy Initiative.

An unexpected victory Nielsen appeared to be surprised by Demokraatit’s gains as the results came it, with photos showing him sporting a huge grin and applauding at a post-election party.

He later said Demokraatit would reach out to all the other parties to negotiate Greenland’s future political course.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen congratulated Demokraatit and warned that Greenland’s new government would likely have to "deal with massive pressure" from Trump.

"It’s not the case that you can just take part of the Danish Realm," Danish broadcaster DR quoted him as saying. "The future of Greenland is based on what the Greenlandic people and government want."

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede last month called early elections, saying the country needed to be united during a "serious time" unlike anything Greenland has ever experienced.

On Wednesday, after the results were known, Egede used a Facebook post to thank voters for turning out and said the parties were ready to turn to negotiations to form a government.