PANO - On the morning of June 4th, the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center launched a project to build its Headquarters and training facilities in Thach Hoa commune, Thach That district, Hanoi.
Attending the ground-breaking ceremony were; Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defense Minister, Head of the Steering Board of the Vietnamese Defense Ministry for UN peacekeeping operations; Senior Lieutenant General Mai Quang Phan, Deputy Director of the General Department of Politics; Lieutenant General Le Chiem, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army; Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Deputy Chairman of the Hanoi Municipal People’s Committee; and other high-ranking officers of the Defense Ministry as well as local civilian officials.
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| Director of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center, Senior Colonel Hoang Kim Phung addressing the ceremony. |
Addressing the ceremony, Senior Colonel Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center, highlighted the achievements of the center over the past year and the significance of the project.
He said, “The center officially operated a year ago and it has achieved positive results. The UN and other countries highly valued Vietnam’s participation and Vietnamese officers’ performances in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa.”
He also revealed, “The project covers nearly 7ha and costs more than 200 billion Vietnamese dong or some 10 million US dollars, including 3.1 million US dollars of US aid. According to the plan the project will be completed in 2017. The center, with modern facilities and equipment, will then be responsible for training Vietnamese peacekeeping and search and rescue forces. It can also cooperate with its peers in both the region and the world in training international peacekeeping troops.”
Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Le Chiem said that Vietnam’s participating in UN peacekeeping missions has demonstrated its commitment to be an active and responsible member of the international community. When participating in UN peacekeeping missions, Vietnamese troops can use the Vietnam People’s Army’s military arts and experiences from the past national liberation and Fatherland protection wars to successfully fulfill their duties; in addition, they could learn much from their international peers.
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The project officially launched.
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In an interview after the ceremony, Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Chi Vinh said that Vietnam has sent several officers overseas to participate in UN peacekeeping missions and two of them have successfully fulfilled their roles already. In the future, Vietnam is planning to assign company-level military contingents of sappers and medics to UN peacekeeping missions, he unveiled.
He also underlined the functions of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center saying that the center is directly commanded by the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army and is under the leadership of the Defense Ministry and Central Military Commission. Secondly, the center is entrusted to train the necessary skills and provide knowledge for Vietnamese troops, who will be assigned to UN peacekeeping missions. Thirdly, the center is tasked to become a regional peacekeeping training facility, which can provide training courses on peacekeeping, search and rescue, and humanitarian aid for both regional and international troops. Finally, it is to serve as an external relations agency, which will promote defense ties and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries.
To conclude, he called on international friends and partners, and the international community as a whole to provide more assistance and support for Vietnam so that Vietnam could contribute more to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and world.
Thu Nguyen - Trung Thanh