The visit aims to boost Vietnam and Thailand’s cooperation in UN peacekeeping operations, especially at the time when Vietnam takes over the rotating chairmanship of the ASEAN Peacekeeping Centers Network (APCN) and is the host of the eighth annual meeting of the APCN in 2020.
At the reception, General Phung emphasized the fine relationship between the two countries, especially in bilateral defense ties with increased cooperation in UN peacekeeping operations.
The Vietnamese general highly valued the Thai support for Vietnam in the field and said that Vietnam is willing to learn experience from Thailand in organizing training courses and promoting the exchange of delegations at all levels in UN peacekeeping operations.
During the Thai guest’s visit, the two sides studied the possibility of signing a cooperation deal with the Thai Center and the VNDPKO as signatories. According to the deal, the two sides will organize delegation exchanges, invite each side’s officers to participate in training courses and exercises on UN peacekeeping operations hosted by each country, and help each country’s officers improve their professional expertise in the field based on their own strength.
The two sides also reached consensus on furthering all-level delegation exchanges and making the cooperation in UN peacekeeping operations a regular topic in the two countries’ high-level delegation exchanges, consultations, and dialogues.
Thailand will continue inviting Vietnamese officers to join UN peacekeeping operations-related training courses and drills when Thailand is the host country and will consider the possibility of dispatching its veteran experts to share experiences with Vietnamese officers in preparing and deploying an engineer contingent to UN peacekeeping missions. They will also share experiences in capacity building for UN peacekeeping missions-undertaking officers and in the organization of UN-standardized training courses.
Earlier, the Thai delegation worked with the Vietnam Military Medical University and the Vietnam Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 2 which is going to be deployed to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan this year.
* The same day, the VNDPKO opened a training course in which three UK engineer experts will share experiences with Vietnamese officers who hold key positions in the Vietnam Engineer Contingent in UN peacekeeping operations. The Vietnamese officers are mostly from the Engineer Corps of Vietnam while the UK instructors are headed by Colonel Tom Marsden, Commander of 12 Force Support Engineer Group.
The course will focus on the preparations of equipment and forces, the process of the deployment of an engineer contingent, the operating environment, barrack conditions, accommodations, and working conditions for an engineer contingent in a UN peacekeeping mission. The course will also include other works related to logistics and maintenance and guarantee and operation of staffed equipment.
Translated by Mai Huong