NEW YORK CITY, New York: The United Nations will begin a sweeping reduction of its global peacekeeping force in the coming months, with thousands of soldiers expected to withdraw from conflict zones following significant U.S. funding cuts, a senior U.N. official said this week.

The move marks one of the most significant retrenchments in peacekeeping operations in decades. It reflects Washington's decision to scale back support as part of President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda.

According to the official, who spoke anonymously about a private briefing, the U.N. will cut peacekeeping personnel worldwide by roughly 25 percent — a reduction of 13,000 to 14,000 military and police officers from a total of over 50,000 deployed across nine missions. The organization's support office in Somalia will also see significant downsizing. The overall peacekeeping budget will shrink by about 15 percent this year, with many missions in Africa and the Middle East expected to be hardest hit.

Current U.N. peacekeeping operations span countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Kosovo. Each of the U.N.'s 193 member states contributes funding according to an agreed formula. Secretary-General António Guterres has long argued that peacekeeping — which costs less than half of one percent of global military spending — remains "one of the most effective and cost-efficient tools to build international peace and security."

The drastic cuts follow a meeting between Guterres and representatives from key donor nations, including newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz. Waltz reiterated Washington's stance that the U.N. system is "bloated and redundant" and vowed not to release additional contributions until a full review by the State Department determines which agencies are "effective and essential."

Since his second term began in January, Trump has intensified efforts to reassess U.S. participation in multilateral institutions, withdrawing or freezing funding to several U.N.-affiliated bodies, including UNESCO, the World Health Organization, and the Human Rights Council. More than 60 U.N. offices and agencies are already bracing for a 20 percent staff reduction, part of Guterres's broader reform plan and a direct response to the U.S. cuts.

In a recent television interview, Waltz said Washington's goal was to refocus the U.N. "on its core mission — promoting peace, enforcing peace, preventing wars," adding that "we have to cut out all of this other nonsense."

Peacekeeping operations have expanded sharply since the early 1990s, growing from 11,000 personnel at the end of the Cold War to a peak of 130,000 in 2014. Today, roughly 52,000 peacekeepers serve in 11 missions worldwide.

The U.S. has pledged US$680 million for nine of these — down from $1 billion last year — while China, which, along with the U.S., funds nearly half of the U.N.'s peacekeeping budget, has pledged to pay its full share by year's end.