The UN General Assembly has approved a budget of $7.3 billion for peacekeeping missions for the coming year. This, in turn, is $570 million less than last year. The United States said it wants even more cuts. In general, the funds will be spent on 14 peacekeeping missions. Financing in the amount of $6.8 billion has already been approved, allocation of another $500 million must be approved in December this year. The reductions affected, above all, the “blue helmets” operations in the Republic of Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Darfur region of western Sudan. The United States, which makes the largest contribution to the budget of the UN peacekeeping missions, insisted on a significant reduction in the financing of peacekeeping operations, in particular, by $1 billion. Commenting on the decision of the General Assembly, the Permanent Representative of the United States to the World Organization Nikki Hayli stated that it was “just the beginning.” At the same time, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on the contrary, spoke in favor of increasing the peacekeeping budget to $7.97 billion.

So, what do you think about cutting the UN budget for peacekeeping missions?

The Pentagon and the White House are reviewing the US strategy for Afghanistan. In particular, the leadership of the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) is considering expanding combat operations in Afghanistan. It is expected that in July 2017, President Donald Trump will be offered to resume military operations against the Taliban and Hakkani Network terrorist organizations. At present, according to official figures, there are about 8400 US troops in Afghanistan, a quarter of them are special forces specializing in fighting jihadis. In total, there are about 12,000 NATO troops in the country. All of them teach Afghan security forces and take part in strikes on “Islamic State” and “Al Qaeda” militants. At the end of 2014, the Alliance’s non-military operations “Resilient Support” came to replace the forces of the international armed coalition. Earlier it was reported that the Donald Trump Administration considers the issue of sending an additional contingent to Afghanistan. Also, the decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan was agreed within NATO.

So, what do you think about the US considering expansion of combat operations in Afghanistan?