Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, permanent member of the Central Military Commission and Deputy Defense Minister, chaired the meeting.

At the meeting, General Vinh and Senior Lieutenant General Pham Ngoc Minh, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army and deputy head of the working group, highly appreciated the competence and professional expertise of cadres, doctors and workers of the Level-two Field Hospital No.2 (L2FH) as well as the good preparations for the deployment of this hospital to a UN mission in the near future.

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General Nguyen Chi Vinh speaking at the event

Lieutenant General Tran Quang Phuong, Deputy Director of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People’s Army and Deputy Head of the Ministry of National Defense’s Steering Committee on Vietnam’s engagement in UN peacekeeping activities, asked Military Hospital 175 and the Military Medical University to seriously draw lessons learnt to carry out well the plan of replacing L2FH No.1 with L2FH No.2 in South Sudan to avoid shortcomings facing the L2FH No.1 during its operation.

General Phuong suggested the L2FH No.2 be active in preparing and practicing mass mobilization work and military-civilian medical activities to be ready to conduct their missions in line with the UN’s regulations.

Addressing the meeting, General Vinh underscored that Vietnam is considering expanding Vietnam’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations. Based on Vietnam’s capabilities, the UN has suggested Vietnam further its participation in air transport and send an infantry unit to ensure security, civilian personnel as well as a police unit to UN missions, General Vinh added.

He confirmed that Vietnam will not get engaged in air transport in the short term and is considering to participate in other fields. Opinions of related ministries and departments for the issue will be collected before it is reported to the Government.

General Vinh also revealed the possibility of Vietnam’s coordination with the UN in organizing an exercise for the engineering force joining UN peacekeeping operations in Vietnam in 2020 and stressed that it will be a significant activity in the year Vietnam takes on the role as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, showing Vietnam’s determination to carry out its commitments to the UN’s common missions.

At the meeting, General Phuong underscored that Vietnam’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations requires the engagement of various Vietnamese ministries and functional agencies. Therefore, he suggested related ministries and departments to build plans on their related UN peacekeeping activities and submit them to the Prime Minister for approval.

All members of the intersectoral working group agreed with the proposal of building the L2FH No.2 into a plastic-waste-free hospital, contributing to the UN’s environmental protection goal.

The Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense and the UN Development Program are scheduled to co-chair an international conference entitled “Women and UN peacekeeping operations” in Vietnam. This hot topic has attracted much attention from the UN and support from a number of countries worldwide.

Translated by Mai Huong