The first time, India became a part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission was in Korea in 1950

Ever since it was set up in 1948, with an aim to help countries which are torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace, India has been one of the biggest supporters of the UN Peacekeeping mission.

Since then, India has sent its personnel all over the world as part of the UN mission and has contributed more personnel than any other country as well as the first-ever all-female force that helped to bring peace to Liberia in the wake of that country’s brutal civil war.

Even the current Current Indian Army Chief, Bipin Rawat was once the commander of the MONUSCO brigade.

But now, the country has expressed concerns over the delay in reimbursement to countries providing peacekeeping troops and police for UN missions.

According to reports, the United Nations owe a total of $3.6 billion in reimbursements to contributing countries. The UN owes India $38 million in reimbursements for the various missions it has taken part.

Expressing concern, India said the delays are "unjustifiable and inexplicable".

"Reimbursement on time for peacekeeping is a genuine expectation," First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Mahesh Kumar said Thursday at a Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) session on 'Improving the Financial Situation of the United Nations,' adding that UN peacekeeping also suffers from delay in reimbursements and called for a serious introspection.

He pointed out that apart from the one billion dollar worth of unsettled reimbursements to TCCs, large reimbursements related to Letters of Assist (USD 178 million) and death and disability claims (USD 8 million) were also outstanding.

These amounts do not include the long unsettled Contingent Owned Equipment (COE) reimbursements of many TCCs, including India, from the closed peacekeeping missions.

Earlier, in March 2019, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said that the UN owes India USD 38 million, among the highest it has to pay to any country, for peacekeeping operations.

India's share of the UN's budget has been increasing in recent years, including a 13 percent increase from this year and the country has been paying its share on time.

Earlier this year, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had said that the financial situation of the United Nations peacekeeping, particularly the non-payment/delayed payment of arrears to the troop/police-contributing countries, is a "cause for concern".

He had said that the practice of delaying payments to TCCs/PCCs, even as contractual obligations to others are met, cannot continue unaddressed.