The New York Times

Wednesday, January 10, 2001

Satisfied With U.N. Reforms, Helms Relents on Dues

By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 - Jesse Helms, the Senate's fiercest critic of the United Nations and its budget structure, said today that he would allow the release of $582 million in American back dues to the world body, even though his goals for reform have not been fully met.

Mr. Helms, who has used his leadership position on the Foreign Relations Committee to demand reductions in American contributions to the United Nations budget and its peacekeeping operations, declared himself satisfied with a deal brokered last month by Richard C. Holbrooke, the American ambassador.

Mr. Helms, Republican of North Carolina, led the committee's senators in a standing ovation for Mr. Holbrooke, who has toiled for years to win the changes sought by Mr. Helms and the ranking Democrat, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware. It was an oddly giddy scene - witnessed by several foreign ambassadors - that belied the long struggle by Clinton administration officials to conduct diplomacy under the stigma of being a deadbeat nation.

"Two weeks ago, Ambassador Holbrooke succeeded in cajoling, and maybe even a little browbeating, some of our friends at the United Nations into implementing several of the key reforms that lie at the heart of the so-called Helms-Biden legislation," Mr. Helms said.

Under the deal, the American share of the United Nations administrative budget of $1.1. billion would drop to 22 percent, which Congress required, from 25 percent. The American contribution to the $3 billion annual peacekeeping budget would be reduced from 31 percent to 26 percent by 2004.

The rollback in peacekeeping dues was not quite the 25 percent cap demanded under Helms-Biden, but Mr. Helms indicated that it was close enough, noting that it would save Americans $170 million over two years.

He said he would present legislation to free up the $582 million - the first payment from a total of $926 million - that Congress has set aside to pay back dues. United Nations officials say the United States has about $500 million in additional arrears, but Clinton administration officials expressed hope that the breakthrough would mollify other governments and allow the incoming Bush administration to begin with a clean slate.

"Through this debate, we have forced the United Nations to make much-needed reforms, and we have protected the American taxpayer from unknown increases that might have happened and been contemplated by the United Nations and its supporters," Mr. Helms said.

"Today was really an amazing, unexpected day," Mr. Holbrooke said in a telephone interview. "This was a historic turning point."

Mr. Holbrooke, who spoke tonight with Gen. Colin L. Powell, President- elect George W. Bush's secretary of state-designate, said the change would allow the next administration "to begin to strengthen America's role in the U.N. and to strengthen the U.N. itself."

Mr. Holbrooke said the American share of the budget was reduced by increasing allocations from other countries. The United States will save $100 million next year and an additional $70 million the year after, he said.

Several ambassadors to the United Nations attended the committee meeting, including envoys from Australia, South Korea, Argentina, Colombia, South Africa and Japan. With the exception of Japan, the other countries have agreed to increase their United Nations dues under the new allocation. Russia and China will take on the biggest increases in terms of their share of the budget, Mr. Holbrooke said.

Penny Wensley, the Australian ambassador, stiffened the mood slightly by voicing impatience with what many governments saw as strong-arm tactics by American lawmakers. She called on Congress to formally lift its 25 percent ceiling on United Nations payments, a restriction introduced by Senator Nancy Kassebaum in 1994.