The spirit of dedication and responsibility of Vietnamese soldiers has helped spread the image of the country and people of Vietnam who love peace for a prosperous and progressive human community. President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has assessed the engagement in U.N. peacekeeping operations over the past 8 years as a highlight in the multilateral diplomacy of the country’s Party, State and military.
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Vietnam's Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 4 and Engineering Company Rotation 1 ready to take on peacekeeping duties |
The establishment of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center (now the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations) and the send-off for the first two VPA officers to work as liaison officers at the U.N. Mission in South Sudan on May 27, 2014, marked the nation's official participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations.
On November 13, 2020, the National Assembly passed Resolution No.130/2020/QH14 on joining the U.N. peacekeeping force, which clearly stipulates principles, forms, fields and forces, competence, force deployment process, guaranteed funding, regimes, policies and state management for the engagement in the U.N. peacekeeping force.
Since 2020, the country has had four officers recruited to work at the Department of Peace Operations at the U.N. headquarters in New York and MINUSCA.
In 2018, Vietnam officially sent the Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 1 to conduct peacekeeping operations in Bentiu, South Sudan.
To date, it has sent over 250 officers and doctors of Level-2 Field Hospitals Rotations 1, 2, 3 and 4 to South Sudan.
Especially, after years of careful preparation, on November 17, 2021, Vietnam officially debuted its Engineering Company Rotation 1. This is the first time Vietnam has sent an engineering company to a U.N. peacekeeping mission and also the deployment of the biggest unit ever, with 184 soldiers, including 21 women.
According to Major General Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations is a major policy of the Politburo and Party Central Committee to help Vietnam integrate into the world at a high level.
In the coming time, Vietnam’s policy is to focus on developing external affairs and defense cooperation in U.N. peacekeeping, attracting foreign resources to improving the capacity of the Vietnamese military in preparing and deploying other forces to get engaged in U.N. peacekeeping operations.
Source: VNA