Pakistan has urged the United Nations not to let budget cuts weaken its peacekeeping operations, warning that cost-cutting must not hollow out the missions that keep the peace in some of the world's most fragile places.

Addressing the Fourth Committee of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly on Friday, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Syed Haider Shah, said financial constraints must not be allowed to undermine missions' ability to maintain international peace and security.

The warning comes as the General Assembly has approved a 5.1 billion dollar budget for peacekeeping operations for 2026-27, approximately 10 per cent lower than the previous year's allocation. A funding crisis last year had already forced the organisation to reduce mission expenditure and repatriate a quarter of its uniformed personnel serving in peacekeeping operations.

Ambassador Shah called for reforms that improve the effectiveness of peacekeeping without compromising the capabilities required to fulfil mission mandates. He welcomed the Secretary-General's review of peacekeeping operations and outlined six priorities for strengthening the system.

These include giving primacy to political solutions, ensuring focused and adequately resourced mandates, preserving the institutional strengths of peacekeeping, preparing for future military and police requirements, improving the safety and security of peacekeepers, and maintaining peacekeeping as a collective UN responsibility.

"What is needed is the political will in the Security Council to use this important instrument when circumstances require," he said.

Pakistan expressed concern over the growing gap between the responsibilities assigned to peacekeeping missions and the resources available to carry them out. Shah cautioned against allowing financial ceilings to dictate operational requirements, arguing that political objectives should first determine what a mission is expected to achieve, and that its mandate should then establish the personnel, equipment and financial resources needed to accomplish those objectives.

"Efficiency and cost reduction must therefore strengthen peacekeeping, not hollow out the capabilities that give UN peacekeeping its unique value," he said.

Pakistan is among the largest and longest-serving contributors to UN peacekeeping. More than 170,000 Pakistani military and police personnel have served in UN missions over the past six decades, with 183 losing their lives. The country also hosts the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

The ambassador also called for preserving the distinctive advantages of UN peacekeeping, including its universal legitimacy, predictable financing, established command and logistics systems, and access to personnel and specialised capabilities from across the UN membership.

UN peacekeeping missions play an important role in stabilising conflict situations, protecting civilians, supporting ceasefires and preserving opportunities for negotiations. Pakistan maintained that these functions require adequate resources and sustained political support, and that losing predictable financing would put at risk capacities that cannot easily be rebuilt.