New York (VNA) – The selection of Vietnam as a training sitefor UN peacekeeping forces in ASEAN demonstrates the UN’s high evaluation forVietnam’s activeness and capacity to contribute to UN peacekeeping activities, saida military officer.
It also shows Vietnam’s success in international integration andstrides towards a world of peace and security, said Colonel Nguyen Van Hai, whois military attaché and counsellor for military affairs at the VietnamesePermanent Mission to the UN.
When the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre was opened in 2014, it has beenset to become an international peacekeeping establishment. Over the past fouryears, the centre has been improved step by step to meet internationalstandards, he noted.
Compared with some other ASEAN nations, Vietnam’s contributions to theUN peacekeeping mission was relatively modest but trained Vietnamese militarypersonnel deployed for UN peacekeeping operations have been highly appreciatedthanks to good training facility, the colonel explained.
Vietnam must exert great efforts for the launch of the first trainingcourse to be held at the end of this year as scheduled, he said, adding thatthe country will have to work with the UN to conclude a memorandum ofunderstanding, develop training programmes and finalize necessary procedures towelcome foreign trainees to the course.
According to Hai, the UN has been carrying out a project to set uppeacekeeping training sites in the Middle East and Africa and this year, itlooks to expand the project in Southeast Asia.
On June 25, the UN Department of Field Support (DFS) announced Vietnamis among four ASEAN countries selected to become the UN training sitesfollowing inspections of training facilities in Southeast Asia. The three other countries are Cambodia, Indonesia andThailand.
Vietnam is preparingto deploy a second-level field hospital to South Sudan.
The country has sent20 officers to work at the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Missionin the Central African Republic and the UN Mission in South Sudan, including afemale officer, after nearly four years of training with the UN.-VNA
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