Washington, Sep 19 (IANS) The Trump administration says it has secured more than $1 billion in United Nations budget cuts, alongside reductions in headquarters staff and peacekeepers, as President Donald Trump prepares to address the General Assembly next week.
A senior US official told reporters that 3,000 headquarters positions were being trimmed and more than 25 per cent of peacekeepers worldwide were being sent home.
The administration presented the reductions as part of an effort to narrow the UN’s work and concentrate its resources on peace and security. The briefing did not provide a breakdown of the savings, affected posts or peacekeeping missions.
“Over a billion dollars has now been cut out of the UN budget,” the official said.
The official described the cuts as the first in the organisation’s 80-year history and credited Trump and the secretary of state with driving the changes. That historical claim was not accompanied by supporting figures during the briefing.
“We call it having the UN on a diet,” the official said.
The administration’s argument is that the organisation has taken on too many responsibilities and should concentrate on resolving conflicts. The official said securing agreement on the budget had required consensus and extensive diplomatic work.
The official expected Trump to discuss reform in his General Assembly address, although the speech’s final contents were not announced.
The official described the administration’s approach as a campaign to revive the institution.
“We have worked together to rebrand it Munga, the Make the UN great again,” he said.
He also defended the diplomatic value of the annual gathering. The concentration of presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, business leaders and diplomats in Manhattan created opportunities that were difficult to reproduce elsewhere, he said.
The official pointed to last year’s gathering, when Trump brought together Gulf countries and Muslim-majority countries including Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia. He linked those discussions to the subsequent Sharm el-Sheikh peace accords and Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.
He said the administration expected to use this year’s gathering to advance both existing agreements and unresolved diplomatic efforts.
Trump will arrive in New York on Monday afternoon and attend political events at Trump Tower that evening. He will address the General Assembly on Tuesday morning.
His programme includes meetings with the British and Japanese prime ministers and a multilateral session with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders. He will also host a reception for world leaders and meet Venezuela’s acting president before returning to Washington.
Trump’s speech would highlight peace agreements, ongoing negotiations and problems the administration believed previous governments had deferred.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions and progress on the Gaza plan would also feature, he said.
Beyond the president’s programme, officials outlined a broader US diplomatic agenda covering artificial intelligence governance, undersea cables, seabed minerals and an initiative emphasising trade over aid.
A senior official also cited Western Sahara as an example of Washington’s push for political negotiations rather than repeated renewals of peacekeeping mandates.
–IANS
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