UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly’s budget committee approved the budget for its far-flung peacekeeping missions on Thursday after contentious negotiations pitting wealthy countries against developing nations.

The dispute stopped the clock at midnight on June 30 and left missions in legal limbo for three days. It was over the amount of money that countries supplying troops to UN missions should receive per soldier for extra expenses involved in their deployment, including training, vaccinations, overseas allowances, uniforms and additional equipment.

The overall budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2014-June 30, 2015 is estimated at $8.6 billion, an increase from the $7.83bn budget that expired on June 30. It covers 17 missions and about 100,000 peacekeepers.

By way of comparison, the UN notes that this is less than one half of one per cent of world military expenditures, which were estimated at $1.7 trillion in 2013.

The Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries including all the major troop contributing nations and China, wanted the UN to reimburse governments contributing troops $1,763 per month per soldier, a huge rise from the average amount of $1,210 last year.

The United States, European Union, Japan and South Korea, which pay the vast majority of peacekeeping costs, balked at the amount, estimated at about $700 million this year.

In a compromise proposed by the committee chair, the reimbursement level would rise with effect from July 1 to $1,332 monthly per soldier — the largest increase in 35 years at 17 per cent — and in steps to $1,410 on July 1, 2017.

Western negotiators said the initial increase would cost about $200m and would be offset by $200m in cuts from the budgets of the peacekeeping missions across Africa, the Middle East, on the India-Pakistan border and in Haiti.

Susana Malcorra, the chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told the committee it was crucial that it maintained its principle of adopting the budget by consensus rather than resorting to a vote for the first time.

But she expressed concern that the three-day delay “may send an unprecedented signal of uncertainty” about the financing of peacekeeping missions.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2014