Vietnam attaches importance to UN peacekeeping training

Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 4 departs for the UN peacekeeping mission. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence have viewed personnel training for UN peacekeeping operations as a necessary preparation, a high-ranking military officer has affirmed.  

Major General Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) that over the past eight years, his department and the defence ministry as well have paid due attention to the training work and the UN side has been satisfied with Vietnam’s performance in this regard.

The training focuses on survival and engineering skills, military medical issues and combat capacity, he said, adding that officers have been equipped with knowledge about defence diplomacy, culture, land and people.

Vietnamese officers have contributed to promoting the new image of UN peacekeeping forces, he continued.

Major General Hoang Kim Phung and peacekeeping forces (Photo: VNA)

According to the Major General, the department has dispatched many experienced officers to lecture at peacekeeping training centres in foreign countries and it will step up training courses, targeting a training centre of the regional and international levels.  

Mentioning Vietnam’s Engineering Unit Rotation 1 at the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), Phung said the unit has satisfied requirements of the UN and won the trust of the UN peacekeeping mission’s leaders.

They have created a new image of soldiers of the Vietnam People’s Army to international friends, he affirmed.

Since Vietnam sent the first officers to UN peacekeeping operations eight years ago, the country has reaped significance achievements, Phung said, noting that the officers have worked as ambassadors of peace-loving Vietnam.

The defence ministry on August 25 organised a conference reviewing Vietnam’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations.

Phung reported at the conference that from June 2014 to August 2022, the army has deployed 512 officers and soldiers to UN peacekeeping missions in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Abyei Area, along with the UN headquarters.

They have shown their professionalism, discipline and international solidarity, and especially have been quick to adapt to harsh working conditions at the missions, he noted.

Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 3 provides medical check-up and treatment for people in South Sudan. (Photo courtesy of Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 3)

In terms of individual deployments, from two officers serving as liaison officers at the South Sudan mission in 2014, 76 have been sent to work independently in different positions so far.

Regarding group deployments, Vietnam has deployed four level-2 field hospitals to South Sudan, all of which have excellently fulfilled their tasks. It also sent the first engineering unit, which comprises 184 officers and soldiers and nearly 2,000 tonnes of equipment, to the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei in May this year, according to Phung.

To implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, the country has sent 74 female officers to peacekeeping operations over the last eight years, he went on, adding the UN recognised the Vietnamese department as one of the four international training centres in the region to hold training under the Vietnam - UN - Japan trilateral partnership programme in June 2018.

The Defence Ministry has also coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to provide peacekeeping training for nearly 30 police officers, four of whom have been chosen, with one working at the UN headquarters and three at the South Sudan mission, Phung said said./.

VNA