December 21, 1999: The US saves its General Assembly vote with a payment of $51 million, barely a week before its deadline.
December 17, 1999: Senator Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a vociferous critic of the UN, accepts an invitation to speak to the Security Council in January.
December 15, 1999: Deputy Director of the US Office of UN system administration, George Abrahams, announces that the US "expects any day now to make the first $100 million payment" of its UN arrears. He stresses that further installments will be contingent on certain reforms, especially a reassessment of the US share of the budget. "We believe that changes in the geopolitical and economic landscape over the past years have called for it to be time to make these relatively modest reductions, and we plan to achieve that goal", he says.
November 23, 1999: After having cut off all funding to the UNFPA for the fiscal year 1999, the US resumes funding in the next fiscal year with a $25 million contribution. The sudden volte-face is indicative of the insecurity of UN initiatives funded solely by voluntary contributions.
November 19, 1999: Diplomatic reactions to the US proposal to pay back dues over 3 years, range from the cynical to the cautiously optimistic. The Los Angeles Times quotes one European diplomat as saying "Right. The check is in the mail, and it will take three years to get here. Maybe by then America will have convinced the rest of us that it's a good deal." Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler says "The taxpayers of the U.S. owe this money to taxpayers in other countries. This money belongs to people, and in many cases these other countries are among the poorest in the world."
November 17, 1999: A report concludes that the NetAid concerts held in October and sponsored by the UN Development Programme in association with Cisco Systems succeed in raising only $1 million from online contributions and concert revenues, despite reaching over 1 billion people worldwide through radio and TV broadcasts and registering 2.3 million hits on the NetAid website. Compared with the $64 million for hunger relief projects raised by the "We are the World" hit single in 1985 and the $120 million for famine relief raised by a concert starring Led Zeppelin, the Who and U2 also in 1985, this result disappoints the hard-pressed UNDP that has seen its core budget decline sharply.
November 16, 1999: US Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke launches a campaign to persuade the UN's other 187 members to accept payment of $926 million as full payment of the $1.52 billion US debt to the UN. Sources at the UN suggest little enthusiasm for giving the richest country a $600 million discount. In an interview, Holbrooke says that he will ask the developed countries of Europe as well as those with fast growing economies such as China, to increase their share of UN finances.
November 14, 1999: Congress and the White House strike a deal on paying back $926 million in US arrears to the UN. In return, the White House agrees to an anti-abortion amendment proposed by Rep. Smith (Republican), that will prohibit grants to international family planning organizations for any purpose if they promote abortion rights. The $926 million is payable over 3 years and each payment is conditional on certain reforms being implemented at the UN. Among these are a reduction of the US share of the UN budget from 25% to 22% and eventually 20%, a reduction in share of the peacekeeping budget from 31% to 25% and a seat on the UN's special budget oversight committee, the ACABQ.
November 11, 1999: A New York Times article reports that a dispute over the wholly unrelated issue of funding for international organizations that promote abortion rights abroad, is holding up a deal between Congress and the White House to repay US debts to the UN.
November 5, 1999: The US House of Representatives passes by a vote of 316-100, a $15.3 billion foreign aid package that includes $75 million for UN peacekeeping operations. Also part of this package is $1.8 billion for the implementation of the Wye River Accords, a sum equivalent to the US debt to the UN. The US is in danger of losing its seat in the General Assembly if it does not pay $350 million in arrears by the end of the year.
November 2, 1999: In an address to the National Press Club, Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke says that the UN must reduce its reliance on any single member for financial support and make its expectations of members' contributions more "equitable". At the same time he recognizes that such reform will not proceed unless the US pays its dues. "As I stand here today, the U.S. owes over $1 billion dollars to the United Nations. This amount is well over half of the total money owed to the organization. These are not extra funds that the UN is asking for. It is money we're legally obligated to provide. And we should pay it," he says.
October 27, 1999: Richard Holbrooke says that he has received a phone call over the weekend from Bernard Kouchner, the UN civil administrator in Kosovo, raising an alarm and pleading for help. Four months after the establishment of the Kosovo mission, the United States has contributed only $4 million to a voluntary start-up trust fund of $27 million. Washington has yet to pay any of the $39 million it has been assessed for regular contributions to the mission, and a larger bill looms next year.
October 24, 1999: A New York Times article reports that the financial crisis at the UN has prevented urgently needed renovations to the Headquarters building from being undertaken, so much so, that only diplomatic immunity spares the building from being shuttered for violations of New York city building regulations!
October 19, 1999: In a speech on his acceptance of the World Federalist Association's Norman Cousins Global Governance Award, former CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite champions the cause of world government through a stronger United Nations. As the first of three measures that he advocates for strengthening the UN, he says "Americans overwhelmingly want us to pay our UN dues, with no crippling limitations. We owe it to the world. In fact, we owe it as well to our national self-esteem."
September 30, 1999: The United States accounts for 65% of all unpaid assessments owed by members and 81% of unpaid dues for the organization's regular budget. The next biggest debtors, Brazil and Argentina, together account for 9% of the arrears on the regular budget.
September 24, 1999: Referring to the UN financial crisis, Sweden's Foreign Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallén, in a speech to the General Assembly in the General Debate, says, "The UN cannot be reformed under the threat of political and financial crisis. It is simply not acceptable that Member States set conditions for fulfilling Charter obligations. The Swedish Government urges all debtors - including the main debtor, the United States - to settle their accounts before the end of this year and to pay their assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions. Securing a sound and viable financial basis must be an integral part of reform efforts. The idea of establishing a revolving credit fund could be considered as an emergency step. We should also enact measures to reverse the current trend of late payment. Article 19 should be applied more strictly. It is time to agree on a new scale of assessment based on capacity to pay. A realistic proposal has been presented by the European Union."
September 23, 1999: US Secretary of State Madeline Albright expresses her frustration at the continuing US debt, saying that the accumulated arrears, which the United Nations estimates at $1.6 billion, have made it particularly difficult to recruit allies for the kind of structural reforms that Congress demands as a condition of paying the back dues and other assessments. "What is happening up here is that they see us as making certain demands that undercut a bureaucracy that they have some interest in, while not paying any money," Albright says.
September 22, 1999: A Chicago Tribune editorial calls the US debt to the UN "humiliating, shameless, ludicrous, needless and intolerable" and describes the world's last superpower as "the UN's foremost deadbeat."
September 21, 1999: In his address to the 54th session of the General Assembly, President Clinton acknowledges the responsibility of the US "to equip the UN with the resources it needs to be effective. As I think most of you know, I have strongly supported the United States meeting all its financial obligations to the United Nations, and I will continue to do so. We will do our very best to succeed this year," he says.
September 7, 1999: A Boston Globe editorial calls risking banishment from the General Assembly "a shameful act of international arrogance."
August 31, 1999: The US runs up $1.739 billion in unpaid dues and other assessments, according to Joseph E. Connor, the UN Under Secretary General for Management.
August 16, 1999: In a speech at the 100th Meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the 86th Meeting of the Ladies' Auxiliary in Kansas City, Missouri, President Clinton states that paying US dues to the UN "is a legal and a moral responsibility. It ought to be reason enough to do so. If we fail to do so soon, the United States will actually lose its vote in the General Assembly." Commenting on these remarks, the Los Angeles Times describes Clinton as a "weak friend of the UN."
