New G2 at the UN: Beijing budgets to win influence

If the end of 2024 saw the rise of a new era in the United States (US), it appears to have happened at its creation, the United Nations (UN), too, making China a near equal of the US.

- Manjeev Singh Puri

On Christmas Eve, the UNGA adopted a new scale of assessments for the UN's regular budget, upping China's share to 20% and making it almost equal to that of the US, which has capped its share at 22% for years.

The regular budget of the UN, pegged at $3.7 billion for 2025, though small in absolute terms, finances the main UN Secretariat and salaries of key UN personnel and hence its influence can hardly be overstated. In fact, the assessed level is an indicator of the relevance of individual member-states in the power game of nations, the UN.

Since its inception nearly 80 years ago, the top contributors to the UN have been Western nations. This naturally saw them lead the thinking at the UN, not only through the power play that money brings but also through the placement of their people at various key places in the UN Secretariat.

Germany and Japan were "enemies" in 1945 but once they bounced back into the western order by the mid-1980s, they too joined the circle of big paymasters. No doubt, in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR, a major attempt was made to make them permanent members of the Security Council following the dictum, one who pays calls the shots. This "reform" of the UNSC was only stalled by the adroitness of Indian diplomats, who roped in Brazil and reached out to the developing world, leaving Germany and Japan little option but to be part of the G-4 on UNSC reform.