The United Nations is at risk of imminent financial collapse due to member states not paying their fees, the body's head has warned.
António Guterres said the UN faced a financial crisis which was deepening, threatening programme delivery, and that money could run out by July.
He wrote in a letter to ambassadors that all 193 member states had to honour their mandatory payments or fundamentally overhaul the organisation's financial rules to avoid collapse.
It comes after the UN's largest contributor, the US, refused to contribute to its regular and peacekeeping budgets, and withdrew from several agencies it called a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Guterres said the UN had faced financial crises in the past but that the current situation was categorically different.
He expressed that decisions not to honour assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced, without naming specific members.
He stated that the integrity of the entire system depended on states adhering to their legal obligation under the UN charter to pay their assessed contributions, adding that 2025 ended with a record amount unpaid - equivalent to 77% of the total owed.
Guterres described a rule that the UN must return unspent money to members if it could not implement a budget as creating a double blow, where the organization was expected to give back cash that does not exist. I cannot overstate the urgency of the situation we now face. We cannot execute budgets with uncollected funds, nor return funds we never received, he wrote.
He emphasized: The bottom line is clear: either all member states honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or member states must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse.
The US, the international organisation's largest contributor, has been critical of the UN’s operations, with President Donald Trump stating it was not fulfilling its great potential.
Earlier in January, Trump withdrew the US from dozens of international organisations, including some 31 UN agencies, claiming to end American taxpayer funding and involvement in entities that advance globalist agendas over US priorities.
In December, the US pledged $2bn to fund UN humanitarian programmes while simultaneously warning the organisation must adapt or die. This is a significant reduction compared to its previous contributions, estimated at around $17bn in 2022.
Guterres had warned that the UN faced its most fragile financial position in years, attributing it to unpaid fees and reminding that it was in a race to bankruptcy.
Trump has been accused of attempting to replace some UN functions with his own Board of Peace, aimed at overseeing aid efforts, although he has claimed it will work alongside the UN. When asked if the Board would eventually replace the UN, he stated, Well, it might.
