Trump administration proposes to cut UN peacekeeping funding 

The White House budget office has put forward a proposal to cut funding for United Nations peacekeeping missions.

According to internal planning documents of the White House, it wants to eliminate funding, citing failures by operations in Mali, Lebanon and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The overall plan wants to slash the State Department budget by about half. The new budget must be approved by Congress, and lawmakers could decide to restore some or all of the funding the administration has proposed cutting.

The State Department was due to respond to the OMB proposal on Tuesday. During US President Donald Trump's first term he proposed cutting about a third of diplomacy and aid budgets. But Congress, which sets the federal government budget, pushed back on Trump's proposal.

The United Nations peacekeeping budget finances nine missions across various regions, including Mali, Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Western Sahara, Cyprus, Kosovo, the area between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and Abyei, an administrative region jointly managed by South Sudan and Sudan. 

The U.S. is the largest financial contributor to the U.N., responsible for 22% of its $3.7 billion core budget and 27% of the $5.6 billion peacekeeping budget, both of which are mandatory contributions. 

Source: Agencies