The event was chaired by Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defense Minister, Head of the Vietnam inter-sectoral working group for Vietnam’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations, and Head of Defense Ministry’s Steering Committee on Vietnam’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations.
Present at the conference were also Senior Lieutenant General Pham Ngoc Minh, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), and Lieutenant General Le Hien Van, Deputy Director of the VPA’s General Department of Politics, among others.
In his speech, Major General Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Department, underlined that the year of 2014 marked a milestone in the country’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations as the Ministry of National Defense established the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center (forerunner of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Department) and then sent first two officers to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
By now, Vietnam has deployed 30 individual officers and a level-two field hospital to UN missions, and is actively making preparations for the deployment of an engineer company to a UN mission in the coming time. These results come from both efforts of the country’s functional agencies and support and collaboration from other countries worldwide.
Meanwhile, UN Resident Coordinator in Vietnam Kamal Malhotra affirmed that Vietnamese peacekeepers have successfully performed their assigned tasks in the UNMISS, and wanted Vietnam to soon send an engineer company to a UN mission. He held that the UN needs units like Vietnam’s field hospital and engineer company for UN peacekeeping operations in the next five to ten years.
The UN official emphasized that the UN pledges to help Vietnam build a strategy for deploying forces to UN peacekeeping missions as well as enhance capacity and quality of its peacekeeping forces in order that the country can play an increasing role in UN peacekeeping operations.
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Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh addresses the event |
In the context that the global and regional situations are undergoing rapid and complex developments, General Vinh requested the whole army units, especially forces to be sent to UN missions, to promote their awareness and responsibilities for implementing the country’s international obligations.
The military bodies, in charge of preparing forces for UN peacekeeping operations, should embrace the scheme “The military’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations in the period 2014-2020 and the following years," while military units, particularly the Vietnam Peacekeeping Department, should recommend the Government and the Ministry of National Defense to send appropriate forces to UN peacekeeping operations and expand defense cooperation with partners in UN peacekeeping operations.
The Deputy Defense Minister asked them to actively and proactively learn experience from other countries in training, deploying, and managing Vietnamese forces working at UN peacekeeping missions while continuously improving the quality of training of peacekeepers, upgrading training facilities to meet regional standards and soon get UN recognitions for international training courses for peacekeepers hosted by Vietnam.
He also hoped international partners would continue to support the VPA’s peacekeepers in particular and Vietnam in general so that the country could contribute more to peace and prosperity of countries in over the world.
Translated by Van Hieu