UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that the world body risks imminent financial collapse without urgent action from member nations, projecting that the organization could exhaust its cash reserves completely by July this year. Furthermore, he called on countries to fulfill their financial obligations immediately to avert disaster. Chronic underpayment and late contributions from several states have already triggered hiring freezes and severe operational cutbacks across UN agencies.
“Either all Member States honor their obligations to pay in full and on time — or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” Secretary-General Guterres wrote in a letter. The UN ended 2025 with $1.6 billion in unpaid contributions, which exceeds double the previous year’s deficit substantially. Although more than 150 nations settled their dues promptly, a handful of major contributors created this fiscal emergency.
The Trump administration recently reduced funding to multiple UN agencies while rejecting or delaying mandatory assessments entirely. President Trump has frequently questioned the UN’s global relevance and openly criticized its institutional priorities publicly. Consequently, the secretary-general slammed “wholesale cuts in development and humanitarian aid” during his final annual address this month. These reductions directly undermine programs approved by the General Assembly just months earlier.
Bureaucratic Paralysis Deepens Institutional Challenges
The Security Council remains deadlocked due to escalating tensions among permanent veto-wielding members including the United States, Russia, and China. Meanwhile, Trump launched his “Board of Peace” initiative this month, which critics argue deliberately competes with UN peacekeeping structures. Additionally, the organization faces an absurd reimbursement dilemma that further strains its fragile finances significantly. Spokesperson Farhan Haq explained the UN must return unspent funds to member states despite lacking available cash reserves.
“We are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle; expected to give back cash that does not exist,” Guterres wrote candidly in his urgent appeal. “The current trajectory is untenable. It leaves the Organization exposed to structural financial risk,” he added with growing concern. The secretary-general emphasized that without dramatically improved collections, the UN cannot fully execute its 2026 program budget approved last December. “Worse still, based on historical trends, regular budget cash could run out by July,” he cautioned explicitly.
Guterres, who will step down at year’s end, described a world fractured by “self-defeating geopolitical divides and brazen violations of international law.” His final year in office now centers on preventing institutional collapse while powerful nations pursue competing diplomatic visions globally. The coming months will test whether member states prioritize collective security over narrow political interests decisively.
