A large share of the UNs expenditure addresses its core mission of peace and security, and this budget is assessed separately from the main organizational budget. The peacekeeping budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year was $8.27 billion, supporting 82,318 troops deployed in 15 missions around the world. UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale that includes a weighted surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. In 2017, the top 8 providers of assessed financial contributions to Peacekeeping operations were the United States  (28.47%), China  (10.25%), Japan  (9.68%), Germany  (6.39%), France  (6.28%), United Kingdom  (5.77%), Russian Federation  (3.99%) and Italy  (3.75%).. Which country was the second most important provider of assessed financial contributions to Peacekeeping operations?