United Nations, Jan 5: Having strongly criticised the UN, US President-elect Donald Trump had a telephonic conversation with the new UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the two had “very positive” discussion on US-UN relations.
“The Secretary-General said that he looks forward to engaging with the President after his inauguration,” Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq told reporters here at the daily press briefing yesterday.
Guterres had called the President-elect and during the “introductory phone call”, they had a “very positive discussion on US-UN relations”, Haq said.
When pressed about details of the call against the backdrop of Trump’s criticism of the world body and its functioning, Haq reiterated that it was an introductory call and went quite well.
“It discussed a number of avenues for participation and cooperation between the US and the UN. I wouldn’t provide any more on specifics about that. I think they’ll get into more specific discussions the next time they get to see each other,” Haq said. Trump, who will be sworn-in as US President on January 20, has made scathing criticism against the world body calling it a “a club for people to get together”.
After the Obama administration allowed the Security Council last month to adopt a resolution against long-term US ally Israel, Trump made his displeasure clear, tweeting “As to the UN, things will be different after January 20,” referring to the day of his swearing-in.
In another tweet late last month, Trump said the UN has “such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!” The US is the largest provider of financial contributions to the UN, providing about 22 per cent of the core UN budget of 5.4 billion dollars and 28 per cent of the peacekeeping budget of 7.8 billion dollars.
