(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Mohammad Al-Otaibi
NEW YORK, Jan 19 (KUNA) -- A new era awaits the United Nations in the upcoming days with the advent of a new US administration led by Donald Trump, who will be sworn-in as President on January 20.
As for the UN, the well-experienced Chief Antonio Guterres started off his tenure with intentions to pursue progress and development within the organization; however, he has to handle the new US administration with utmost care given the unpredictable nature of the future 45th President of the United States.
The new administration came in with a new approach - completely different from its Obama counterpart - promising that things will be different after inauguration day.
The shift is difficult to predict, yet Trump and his advisers gave hints on major issues they will be addressing differently such as the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement and the UN funding.
One of the major targets of the new administration is the historic Paris Agreement that entered into force on November 4, 2016.
Described by the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as a momentous feat, this agreement - adopted on December 12, 2015 - marked a moment in global efforts to address climate change.
It was adopted by 196 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with aims to strengthen the global response to this threat by keeping global temperature this century well below 2 degrees Celsius which is above pre-industrial levels. The agreement will pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 Degrees Celsius.
During his presidential campaign, Trump accused global warming of being a Chinese creation in order to make the US non-competitive in manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Trump promised his fellow citizens to make America "Great Again." To do so, the billionaire spouted some radical suggestions such as imposing tariffs to discourage imports and building a wall to stop immigrants.
Despite the offbeat rhetoric, he was able to oust his Democratic rival Hilary Clinton that came into the game with a political background and foreign policy.
During her last press conference at the UN, Samantha Power - the outgoing US Ambassador to the international organization - touched on Trump's intentions to pullback funding from the world's top body.
The US is the largest provider of financial contributions to the organization, providing 22 percent of the UN budget in 2015, and 28 percent of the peacekeeping budget.
She made it clear that the only beneficiaries of the US's pullback of funding from the UN would be countries like China and Russia.
"If there's less US leadership at the UN, it will be other countries that step in to fill the void," she said.
Power pointed out that the string of changes that the US have been able to secure came in part because it was credible leadership within the UN, a role that would become extremely hard to do if the US was not contributing funds.
Trump has appointed South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to take over Power's position at the UN.
Haley, who was a two-term governor, initially backed Trump rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz during the Grand Old Party (GOP) battle for a White House nominee.
Not only the US is host to the UN headquarters, but also had a pivotal role in establishing the international organization, and is one of 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council. (end) mao.gta
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