At the reception, Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien emphasized that 2022 is an important year when Vietnam is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its U.N. membership. Over the past more than four decades, Vietnam has cooperated closely with international organizations, especially the U.N., to realize its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralization, and diversification and being a responsible member of the international community.
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Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien receives U.N. Resident Coordinator in Vietnam Pauline Tamesis |
The Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister acknowledged the support of the U.N. and its functional agencies, especially the U.N. Resident Coordinator Office in Vietnam, to the country’s fulfillment of its role as ASEAN Chair 2020 and non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure. The defense leader thanked the U.N. and functional agencies for their close coordination in successfully carrying out war legacy settlement measures in Vietnam. He evaluated that war legacy settlement projects and programs jointly implemented by the U.N., international partners, and the Vietnamese MND obtained positive outcomes, contributing to raising local people’s living standards.
The Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister expected that the U.N. will continue assisting the Vietnamese MND in overcoming war legacy by providing financial and technical support, raising the country’s competence, sharing experience, and building documents related to the work.
Regarding U.N. peacekeeping, since its first participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations, Vietnam has sent more than 500 officers to work at U.N. missions and U.N. headquarters. Vietnam was also the first country in Southeast Asia to successfully organize three training courses on operating heavy engineering equipment following the Vietnam - U.N. - Japan Tripartite Partnership Program and received high appreciation from U.N. leaders.
In addition, the country has always maintained a high rate of female participation in U.N. peacekeeping activities. After finishing their term, the Vietnamese female peacekeepers were highly appreciated for their mission accomplishment by U.N. missions’ leaders and left a good impression on the host community. Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien stressed that Vietnam commits to continuing maintaining the proportion of female officers participating in the mission with the aim to obtain a target of having more than 20% of women in peacekeeping force by 2025.
The Vietnamese deputy defense minister emphasized that in the coming time Vietnam targets to intensively and extensively participate in U.N. peacekeeping activities, including sending more forces. Apart from military force, Vietnam plans to send its public security force to join U.N. peacekeeping operations. He expected that the U.N. will continue supporting Vietnam’s commitment and political determination in participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations, thus creating favorable conditions for the country to accelerate cooperation activities in this field.
For her part, U.N. Resident Coordinator in Vietnam Pauline Tamesis thanked Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien for the reception and recalled her good impression of Vietnam and its people when she first came to the country to undertake her duty. The diplomat highly appreciated Vietnam’s efforts, especially the role of Vietnamese military and public security forces in containing the pandemic. She emphasized that the U.N. will continue supporting the Vietnamese Government and people to recover its socio-economy in post-pandemic time and meet people’s healthcare need.
The U.N. Resident Coordinator in Vietnam highly appreciated Vietnam’s achievements in joining U.N. peacekeeping operations and committed that the U.N. will continue helping Vietnam in this sector.
Translated by Tran Hoai