I avail of every suitable opportunity to raise with the representatives of countries in arrears in respect of UN peace-keeping the desirability of paying these arrears at an early date. This point has been made many times to the representatives of the USA and the USSR, who have the largest arrears in respect of UN peace-keeping. Both have stated their intention to pay their assessed contributions to UNIFIL in full in the future and to repay the amounts they owe over a number of years. The Soviet Union has already begun to do this and recently paid a further sum of £40 million towards its UN peace-keeping arrears, half of which was earmarked for UNIFIL. Arising out of this we received £2.77 million towards the amount outstanding in February of this year.
I have also discussed this matter with the UN Secretary General, who is deeply concerned about the financial situation of the peace-keeping forces.
We have, however, repeatedly drawn attention to the difficulty caused to troop contributing countries by the failure of some United Nations Member States to pay their full assessed contributions to peace-keeping missions, and we shall continue to make this clear to those involved. The Government see the contribution of personnel to UNIFIL and to many other United Nations peace-keeping operations as a concrete expression of our commitment to the maintenance of international peace and security. This commitment remains firm.
