UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday spoke out against U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to cut some U.S. funding for the world body.
"Abrupt funding cuts can force the adoption of ad hoc measures that will undermine the impact of longer-term reform efforts," Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned, according to Reuters.
"The Secretary-General fully subscribes to the necessity to effectively combat terrorism, but believes that it requires more than military spending," he added, responding to Trump's proposal for an additional $54 billion in military spending.
Trump unveiled on Thursday the first budget proposal of his presidency, totaling $1.15 trillion and including a roughly 10% boost to the U.S. military, amounting to some $54 billion.
The UN, which currently receives some $10 billion per annum from the U.S., would also see a significant cut in funding, according to the budget.
While the proposal states only that the administration plans on reducing “funding to the UN and affiliated agencies” without specifying an amount, Foreign Policy reported this week that the White House has instructed the State Department to cut more than half of American funding for the UN.
The United States is the biggest contributor to the United Nations, paying 22 percent of the $5.4 billion core budget and 28.5 percent of the $7.9 billion peacekeeping budget.
There were calls on Trump to cut American funding to the UN following the Security Council’s passage of Resolution 2334 which criticizes Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.
Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a law that would block taxpayer dollars from going toward the UN, in response to Resolution 2334.