Russian permanent representative to UN foresees damage to Washington's image if U.S. refuses to pay contributions to World Organization
NEW YORK. Feb 8 (Interfax) - The United States' possible refusal to pay mandatory contributions into the United Nations budget is fraught with the worsening of Washington's image, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said.
"If the United States undertook the non-payment of mandatory contributions, this would primarily acutely affect Washington's image. Already saying nothing about the current rule that if a country's debt exceeds its two-year contribution, it is deprived of the right to vote at the UN General Assembly," he said in an interview with Interfax.
"I think that it will not come down to this," he also said.
"It will be necessary to sort out what exactly the U.S. plans to cut," Churkin said. He explained that the UN system has mandatory and voluntary contributions, and the first ones are calculated in compliance with the definite, collectively coordinated scale.
"I would like to hope that Washington will fully realize that the United Nations is not a U.S. gift to the world, but an international structure, which plays an exclusively important role in the settlement of global and regional political and socio-economic problems," the Russian permanent representative said.
Otherwise, he said, "members of the world community would have to resolve them separately, which would be less effective and more costly."
The new U.S. administration has a critical attitude towards the UN and has plans to reduce its contributions to the UN and its structures by 40% in total, western media said earlier.