United Nations, Sep 18 (IANS): The UN peacekeeping chief said that it was critical for member states to pay their assessed contributions in full and in due time.

"We are going through pressures on the peacekeeping budget," Jean-Pierre Lacroix, under-secretary-general for Peace Operations, said during a virtual news briefing on Thursday.

"A certain degree of pressure is a healthy thing for peacekeeping, because that, of course, incentivizes us to spend cautiously and imprudently," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

However, Lacroix said that it is "critical" for UN peacekeeping that member states pay in full and in due time their contributions to both UN peacekeeping budget and regular budget".

"Otherwise, it will hurt the interests of troops and police of contributing countries. When peacekeeping incurs delays in the payment of contribution, those who are affected primarily are troop and police contributing countries because the UN has to delay reimbursement and we think it's unfair.

"They should be reimbursed in due time and that requires a full payment of assessed contributions and payment in due time," said the UN peacekeeping chief.

Speaking about major challenges, Lacroix said that the biggest one was division in the international community.

Noting that the ultimate objective of peacekeeping is to support political efforts, he said "we cannot be alone in doing this".

"We need more unity of purpose, and we need a stronger political support from stakeholders," he said.

The second biggest challenge, according to Lacroix, is the increasingly dangerous and challenging environment in which peacekeeping is deployed and active.

The Covid-19 pandemic has become "an additional challenge", he said, stressing that the missions have been able to continue and must continue.

"We're making a lot of efforts both to protect our people and the level of contamination within our missions remains relatively low.

"We're continuing our efforts to support national and local efforts to help communities contain the spread of the virus," he added.