UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of an “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid membership fees and a budget rule that requires unused funds to be returned. | Photo credit: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Guterres has repeatedly spoken about the UN’s worsening liquidity crisis, but this was his sharpest warning yet, and it came at a time when the United States, the main contributor – and debtor – is retreating from multilateralism on many fronts.
Here are some questions and answers about the UN’s finances:
HOW MUCH IS OWED TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND BY WHOM?
In a letter to member states last week, Guterres said there was a record $1.57 billion in outstanding contributions to the U.N. regular budget, without naming the countries that owed them.
UN officials say more than 95 percent of what is owed in the regular UN budget is owed to the United States: $2.19 billion as of early February. The US also owes another $2.4 billion for current and past peacekeeping missions and $43.6 million for UN tribunals.
On December 30, the UN General Assembly approved $3.45 billion for the UN’s regular 2026 budget, after weeks of negotiations. This covers the costs of running UN offices around the world, including the headquarters in New York, staff salaries, meetings and development and human rights work.
UN officials say the US did not contribute to the regular budget last year and is owed $827 million for it, as well as $767 million for 2026. Next in line were Venezuela and Mexico, which owed $38 million and $20 million respectively.
The contributions depend on the size of the economy. The US accounts for 22% of the regular budget, followed by China with 20%. The reimbursements are officially due on February 8 and so far 41 states have paid by 2026, a UN document shows.
WHAT IS GUTERRES ASKING THE MEMBER STATES TO DO?
Without naming the United States, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week that the UN’s “cash flow problem” could be solved “if member states, which are obliged to pay, also pay.”
The crisis comes as US President Donald Trump has created a Peace Council with himself as lifetime chairman, which some fear could undermine the United Nations, a 193-member body formed in the ashes of World War II that works to maintain international peace and security.
Under Trump, the US has not only refused to make mandatory payments to the UN’s regular and peacekeeping budgets, but also cut voluntary funding to UN agencies with their own budgets, and taken steps to leave UN organizations, including the World Health Organization. In December, the UN called for a 2026 aid budget that is only half of what it had hoped for in 2025, acknowledging a decline in donor funding at a time when humanitarian needs have never been greater.
Guterres last year launched a reform task force, UN80, with the aim of cutting costs and improving efficiency. The approved 2026 regular budget is roughly $200 million higher than he proposed, but about 7 percent lower than the approved 2025 budget.
Guterres warned in his letter that the UN could run out of cash in July and cited a “Kafkaesque” demand to return hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent contributions to states annually, even if they never received the money. UN officials hope to overhaul this “bizarre” rule, which Guterres has called “a race to bankruptcy.”
WHAT HAS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAID?
Speaking to Politico on Sunday, Trump cast himself as the savior of the UN but declined to say whether the US would pay.
According to Politico, Trump said he was not aware that the US was behind on his promises, but that he was confident he could “solve the problem very easily” and get other countries to pay – if only the UN would ask for it.
The White House and State Department did not respond when asked whether the U.S. would pay, or whether Trump meant other countries should send the money instead.
However, a senior State Department official said “the UN needs to get back to basics” and accused the organization of wasting money.
“We have no interest in continuing to spend U.S. tax dollars on such waste, fraud and abuse,” the official said.
“The UN continues to pay its staff far more than for comparable US government positions, offers unacceptable benefits and pensions, and increases the number of high-level bureaucrats in New York alone – by more than 30% – in the last two years. The UN also spent $340 million on meetings and conferences last year.”
According to a draft document of the UN budget seen by Reuters in September, the UN’s cost-cutting plans for next year envisaged much smaller cuts to senior staff than to lower levels.
It showed that only two of the 58 department head posts in the tier of undersecretaries general under Guterres, or 3%, would disappear, compared with about 19% across the board and up to 28% for a lower category, according to Reuters calculations.
A UN official said Guterres wanted to implement reforms while limiting the impact of cuts. If the U.S. didn’t pay, “ultimately no rallies can be organized, no work can get done, and staff can’t get paid,” the official said.
“Unlike a government, we cannot borrow money or print money.”
Published on February 4, 2026
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