NEW YORK, 30 December, 2020, (TON): Volkan Bozkir, president of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), on Tuesday expressed his disappointment at the world body's failure to adopt the budget and plan for 2021.

"I would like to express my concern and disappointment that the United Nations' budget and plan for 2021 have still not been adopted. We are facing an unprecedented situation, in which we are still continuing discussions that have traditionally been finalized before Christmas," the UNGA president said in a statement.

This year, consensus is more urgent than ever. The world has yet to fully address the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated socio-economic consequences, the statement noted.

"The world is therefore looking to the United Nations, including the General Assembly, for leadership and demonstrable action to address these pressing challenges in the real world. The General Assembly has a responsibility to meet the world's expectations and support multilateralism and pandemic recovery, in a manner that accelerates the implementation of the 2030 Agenda during this Decade of Action," it said.

The statement noted that if member states fail to reach an agreement, the consequences on the work of the United Nations will be "dire."

First of all, according to the statement, all personnel, including in special political missions, will be asked to stand down from any activity except the minimum needed to ensure the safety of our personnel and assets.

On other consequences, the statement said that all mandated activity, including support for political processes under way, will be disrupted, increasing the risk of instability. "The missions with time sensitive tasks will be most affected."

The statement also added that “Support operations funded wholly or partly by the regular budget will be disrupted.”