World Leaders Blast American Deadbeats U.S. Owes $1.3 Billion To U.N.; Leaders Hint Cut In Voting Rights

A parade of speakers, including the leaders of such close American allies as Britain and France, used the 50th anniversary summit meeting of the United Nations on Monday to criticize the United States sharply for failing to pay the $1.3 billion it owes the world body.

No one mentioned the United States by name. But there was no doubt about the nation to which French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister John Major and others were referring. Their remarks continued the international criticism that has grown louder and more insistent as Congress continues to shy away from appropriating funds necessary to settle U.S. debts.

“It is not acceptable that many countries, including the foremost among them, should let their arrears pile up, thereby leading to bankruptcy an organization to which all the world’s heads of state and government have come, in an unprecedented event, to affirm that it is irreplaceable on this, its anniversary day,” Chirac said.

“It is not sustainable for member states to enjoy representation without taxation,” Major added, picking up a phrase that has gained wide currency in U.N. circles after it first was used in a speech here last month by British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind.

In his keynote address opening the celebration on Sunday, President Clinton said he is working with Congress to get the payments made. But he did not elaborate, and the persistent debate about the U.S. delinquency, while making little apparent impression on Congress, is becoming a mounting embarrassment to the Clinton administration and its claims to world leadership.

In his Sunday speech, Clinton appealed for international cooperation to fight terrorism and other crossborder crime such as the drug trafficking of Colombia’s notorious Cali cartel. But, judging by the responses from other countries’ leaders, Clinton’s attempt to make these matters a new set of priorities for the United Nations has been virtually ignored.

Instead, the topics mentioned most frequently in other speeches have been disarmament, demands by Third World countries for greater power in U.N. affairs and for more development aid from industrial nations, and fears that the U.N. financial crisis could thwart realization of these goals.

That fear has been echoed widely here by countries from every part of the world, both rich and poor. It was one of the principal topics at a news conference held on behalf of the 15-nation European Union by Spain’s Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, the current president of the EU.

Noting that the United States owes roughly 40 per cent of the $3 billion owed to the United Nations for its regular budget and peacekeeping activities, Gonzalez called for suspending the voting rights of members who fail to pay up. The United States is supposed to pay 31 per cent of the United Nations’ expenses, although Congress unilaterally has scaled the U.S. contribution back to 25 per cent.

By contrast, Gonzalez said, the EU countries collectively are paying 47 per cent of the regular budget and 48 per cent of peacekeeping costs. “That means that 15 countries with roughly the same GDP (gross domestic product) as the United States are making a tremendous effort,” Gonzalez said. He warned that the Europeans believe that the United States must meet its responsibilities quickly if the United Nations is to play a major role in the post-Cold War world.

In his Sunday remarks, Clinton reiterated the U.S. view that if the United Nations is to win the confidence of the American people, it must streamline its bureaucracy and make other far-reaching reforms to curb corruption and waste.