U.N. Says It’s in Danger of Financial Collapse Because of Members’ Unpaid Dues

The world body warned it would run out of money by July and have to close its New York headquarters if countries, namely the United States, did not pay annual dues that amount to billions of dollars.

The United Nations said on Friday that it was facing imminent financial collapse and would run out of money by July if countries, namely the United States, did not pay their annual dues that amount to billions of dollars.

Senior U.N. officials said that if the cash ran out, the agency would be forced to shut down its landmark headquarters in New York by August. The U.N. Security Council, a 15-member body responsible for maintaining international peace and stability, convenes its meetings at U.N. headquarters.

It would also have to cancel the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders held in September and shut the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which responds to global emergencies like conflicts and natural disasters, it said.

The U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, sent a letter to the ambassadors of all 196 member states on Thursday warning them of “imminent financial collapse,” saying the organization’s financial straits this time were different from those in any previous periods, according to a copy of the letter seen by The New York Times.

“The crisis is deepening, threatening program delivery and risking financial collapse,” Mr. Guterres wrote. “And the situation will further deteriorate in the near future. I cannot overstate the urgency of the situation we now face.”

On Dec. 30, the General Assembly authorized $3.45 billion for the United Nations’ 2026 budget, covering the organization’s three core pillars of work: peace and security, sustainable development and human rights.

The United States is responsible for about 95 percent of the money owed to the United Nations, about $2.2 billion, according to a senior U.N. official who briefed reporters on the agency’s budget crisis. That amount is a combination of the U.S. annual dues for 2025, which has not been paid, and for 2026, the U.N. official said.

As for comment, the U.S. mission to the United Nations referred questions to the State Department, which did not immediately respond.

Annual U.N. dues are mandatory and set according to a country’s gross domestic product, and a member state could be stripped of its voting rights at the United Nations for nonpayment.

Venezuela, which has the second-largest amount of unpaid dues, $38 million for 2025, has lost its voting rights, and the world body is not expecting a payment from the South American country because of sanctions, the U.N. official said.

Mexico was third, owing $20 million for 2025, the official said, but it is expected to make a delayed payment.

The United Nations’ financial woes are largely rooted in two problems: a liquidity crisis driven by member states who either are not paying their dues or are paying late, and a financial rule, dating to 1945, that says if the organization fails to fully spend the budget, even if it’s because of lack of payment from member states, it must return the money to the states.

Mr. Guterres said in his letter that the rule essentially puts the United Nations on a trajectory for doom, and he urged member states to pay their dues in full and to overhaul the rule.

“It leaves the organization exposed to structural financial risk and forces a stark choice: Member States must either agree to overhaul our financial rules — or accept the very real prospect of the financial collapse of our organization,” Mr. Guterres wrote.

President Trump, citing mismanagement, waste and redundancy, withdrew the United States in early January from dozens of international organizations, including several U.N. agencies like the Population Fund. Mr. Trump had already pulled the country out of UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency; the World Health Organization; and the U.N. Human Rights Council. And he said the United States would reduce funding for peacekeeping operations.

In addition to its annual dues, the United States also owes the United Nations about $1.9 billion for active peacekeeping missions, $528 million for closed missions and $43.6 million for tribunals such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, said the senior U.N. official in the briefing.

The United States has indicated to the United Nations that it would make a payment of about $160 million for active peacekeeping, but would not pay for the tribunals, the senior U.N. official said. Peacekeeping missions have been instructed to reduce their budgets by 15 percent, the U.N. official said.

“When it comes to paying, it’s now or never,” said Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the United Nations. “We do not have the sort of cash reserves and the sort of liquidity to keep functioning, as we’ve done in previous years. And this is something that the secretary general has warned with increasing strength each year.”

Mr. Haq said that if the United Nations shut down in July, humanitarian work around the world would also be affected and the work of civilian staff hampered. Agencies such as UNICEF, which handles children’s issues; the U.N. Refugee Agency; and the World Food Program have budgets separate from donations and would continue to operate. But the U.N. agency that coordinates relief work across agencies would close.

Richard Gowan, the U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution organization, said that morale was already low among U.N. staff members across its agencies because of layoffs and shrinking programs. If money were to run out by the summer, Mr. Gowan said, one option would be to ask staff members to continue working free for an interim period.

But the real challenge would be to keep conflict mediations, including staff in war zones, and peacekeeping operations overseas afloat without salaries and payments to vendors.

“Guterres has made similar warnings before, and the U.N. has limped through,” Mr. Gowan said. “In the short term, he is probably trying to bounce some big donors into paying up as soon as possible.”

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