“Vietnam thanks the UN for its effective support in the past time and wishes to receive more support from the UN in training its forces for future UN peacekeeping missions and building the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center as a regional-level peacekeeper training institution,” said Senior Colonel Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center, in his remarks at a UN Peacekeeping Operations Forum held on the afternoon of June 10th.

Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan (R) addressing the forum

The forum drew the participation of UN Under-Secretary-General Hervé Ladsous and his entourage; Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, Deputy Chief of the Defense Ministry’s Steering Board for Peacekeeping Operations; representatives of the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry’s involved agencies.

Peacekeeping in the 21 century is quite different from that in the 20th century, which requires UN peacekeepers do a wide range of jobs, from humanitarian aid and other supports for the community to protecting civilians from conflict and disarmament, UN Under-Secretary-General Hervé Ladsous said at a UN peacekeeping operations forum held by the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center.

The concept requires contributing countries to modify the training and preparing of its forces to ensure the success in UN peacekeeping operations, he went on to say.

Under-Secretary-General Hervé Ladsous (5th from the left, the back line), Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan and UN delegates in a joint photo with the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center's staffs

“Vietnam has an excellent army. But as a new contributing country, Vietnam should learn experiences in training and preparing forces for UN peacekeeping operations from high-profile contributing countries and closely cooperate with the UN. The UN highly appreciates Vietnam’s effort and current participation in the UN peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and the Republic of Central Africa,” said the UN official.

“The UN encourages Vietnam to train and prepare all kinds of peacekeepers in order to participate in various UN peacekeeping missions and to contribute more troops to future UN peacekeeping operations. At this point, I think, Vietnam should, however, focus on training and preparing a sapper detachment and a level 2 field hospital as the two forces are on high need,” the UN official suggested.

The UN is ready to render technical support to Vietnam in both training peacekeeping forces and building the Vietnamese peacekeeper-training center, he affirmed.

Speaking at the forum, Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan said: “Peace is the great desire of all peoples in the world. Vietnam, the country, which has experienced several wars in the 20th century, best understands it. What is more, Vietnam well understands that peace and stability of the nation closely link to peace and security of the region and world as a whole. Therefore, it tries its best to participate in UN peacekeeping missions, contributing to international peace, stability and prosperity.”

Participating in UN peacekeeping missions, Vietnam would strictly comply with the UN Charter, international law as well as UN principles orienting UN peacekeeping operations, he pledged.

As scheduled, the UN Under-Secretary-General and his entourage are to pay a courtesy call to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung later in the afternoon.

Source: qndn.vn