Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United Nations (video statements)

A new UN report warns that global financing for development is under growing pressure, threatening decades of progress.

At the launch of the 2026 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Implementing the Sevilla Commitment (FSDR 2026), Li Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said, “Development progress is imperiled by global fragmentation, geopolitical tensions and conflict. Developing countries are trapped in a catastrophic financing squeeze from compounding shocks.”

Many developing countries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, are struggling with a severe financing squeeze.

Debt payments are at their highest level in two decades, development aid is declining, and foreign investment has dropped for the second year in a row, making it harder for countries to invest in health, education and climate resilience.

Li Junhua reported, “Development aid is falling sharply. In 2025, 25 countries decreased their Official Development Assistance (ODA), leading to a 23 percent overall drop from 2024 to 2025, the largest annual contraction on record. Only four countries met the 0.7 per cent target – Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, and Sweden. Based on preliminary data, ODA is expected to further decline by another 5.8 percent in 2026. Developing countries, especially the poorest, face mounting debt, with debt service burdens hitting 20-year highs.”

Geopolitical tensions and global fragmentation are also making cooperation and financial reforms harder to achieve.

Li Junhua said, “Pressures have intensified, with a financing squeeze and increasing fragmentation exacerbated by conflicts. The recent conflict in the Middle East, for instance, has triggered a significant shock to an already fragile global economy. While the ultimate impact will depend on the conflict’s duration and severity, and the resulting arrangements for shipping and trade, we are already seeing clear repercussions for developing countries in relation to energy, food, trade and debt sustainability.”

The report urges stronger international collaboration and investment to close the $4 trillion annual development financing gap.

Despite challenges, progress in renewable energy, South-South cooperation, and early implementation efforts offers a path forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlxK3kuAEI

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Briefing by Peter Due, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNMIK, on the Secretary-General’s latest report on UNMIK.

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“Let us hope that differences can be bridged, a new President can be elected and that new legislative elections can be avoided,” the new chief of UNMIK said, briefing the Security Council on the situation in Kosovo.

Peter Due, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) noted the return of Kosovo Serb mayors to local institutions in the north as a positive step but said “this process has not been without challenges,” citing “incomplete handovers, administrative gaps and language barriers” raised by mayors he had met with.

He also said UNMIK had “implemented a contingency plan reducing encumbered positions by almost 30 per cent” in response to the UN’s broader financial difficulties.

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić said UNMIK remained “indispensable,” noting that its mandate under resolution 1244 had “not been fully implemented.” He said Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija were “increasingly marked as the other” and that their identity was being used “as a basis to limit the rights of Kosovo Serbs, restrict their movement and target their homes, property and religious sites.”

Glauk Konjufca said “the obstacle to peace and normalization of relations remains Serbia, which is neither interested in normalizing relations with Kosovo nor joining the EU.” He called on Belgrade to “come to terms with reality and recognize Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state,” saying it was “holding its society and entire region hostage to aspirations of regaining regional hegemony.”

Konjufca said Kosovo had “one of the most advanced minority protection frameworks in Europe” and said Serbia and “other malign actors continue to weaponize minority rights” to “promote division, disorder and undermine our democratic institutions.”
US Deputy Representative Tammy Bruce said the Council “should not measure effectiveness by how long a mission survives,” pointing to the capabilities of local institutions and the EU presence on the ground. “The UN mission has reached the end of the road,” she said.

Russia’s Permanent Representative Vasiliy Nebenzya said it was “unacceptable to reduce the frequency or to change the format of Security Council meetings on Kosovo,” adding that any reduction in UNMIK’s budget or staffing was equally unacceptable. The mission, he said, continued “to perform the essential task of contributing to the maintenance of stability in the province.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNP46zcVniU