Extract from ABC News
Updated
Photo:
Nikki Haley made the statements upon her arrival at the UN's headquarters in New York City. (Reuters: Mike Segar)
The new US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki
Haley, has pledged to overhaul the world body and warned allies that if
they do not support Washington, then she is "taking names" and will
respond.
Key points:
- Nikki Haley says the US is "taking names and will respond" to unsupportive allies
- Echoing Donald Trump, she says the US is aiming to reform the world body
- The US is the largest UN contributor, paying 22pc of the body's core budget
"Our goal with the administration is to show value at the UN and the way that we'll show value is to show our strength, show our voice, have the backs of our allies and make sure that our allies have our back as well," Ms Haley said.
"For those that don't have our back, we're taking names, we will make points to respond to that accordingly."Ms Haley — who was South Carolina's Republican governor when President Donald Trump picked her for the post — has little foreign policy and no US federal government experience.
French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre and British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said they looked forward to working with Ms Haley.
The United States, Britain and France, along with Russia and China, are permanent veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council.
After her meeting with Mr Guterres, a US official said they had "a good and productive conversation about ways they can work together to reform the UN".
"Everything that's working, we're going to make it better, everything that's not working we're going to try and fix, and anything that seems to be obsolete and not necessary we're going to do away with," Ms Haley told reporters.
US the largest contributor to the UN
According to a draft executive order published by US media, Mr Trump wants a committee — including his secretary-of-state, attorney-general and director of national intelligence — to carry out a one-year review of US funding to international organisations with the aim of almost halving voluntary funding.The United States is the largest contributor to the United Nations, paying 22 per cent of the $5.4 billion core UN budget and 28 per cent of the $7.9 billion UN peacekeeping budget.
These are assessed contributions — agreed by the UN General Assembly — and not voluntary payments.
UN agencies, such as the UN Development Program, the children's agency UNICEF, the World Food Program and the UN Population Fund, are funded voluntarily.
Last year, Mr Trump took to Twitter to disparage the 193-member world body after the United States abstained in a December 23 UN Security Council vote, allowing the adoption of a resolution demanding an end to settlement building by US ally Israel.
Mr Trump, who had called on Barack Obama's administration to veto the resolution, warned that "things will be different" at the United Nations after he took office on January 20.
Reuters
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