Vietnam pledges active participation in UN peacekeeping operations

Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh has affirmed the determination of the Vietnamese Party, State and army to make greater contributions to the United Nations’ peacekeeping operations.

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh speaking at the workshop. (Credit: VNA)

Vinh made the statement at an international workshop on UN peacekeeping operations which opened in Hanoi on July 27.

The workshop demonstrates Vietnam’s commitment to joining the UN’s peacekeeping missions, the US’s responsibility in assisting Vietnam in this kind of activity as a pioneering nation, and the assistance efforts made by the UN and other countries to Vietnam’s nascent peacekeeping operations, Vinh emphasied.

Thanking the UN and relevant agencies for their support of Vietnam, the deputy defence minister asked for regular assistance from the US and other countries to the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre in training, which he said would contribute to the UN’s peacekeeping operations and enhancing bilateral relations between Vietnam and other countries.

US Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius hailed the event as an active and crucial step towards definitively realising Vietnam’s determination to participate in the UN’s peacekeeping operations.

Osius also affirmed the US’s support of Vietnam’s commitments to protect peace in the region and across the world, through boosting co-operation between the two armies, English language training and peacekeeping seminars.

The five-day workshop, co-organised by the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre and the US Department of State’s Global Peacekeeping Operation Initiative (GPOI), offers a platform to share expertise and experience in making preparations for UN peacekeeping operations force deployment and on Vietnam’s roadmap to deploy military medical and sapper units to the missions.

* During their meeting earlier the same day, Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh and US Ambassador Ted Osius talked about the significant co-operation between the two countries in recent years in the fields of national defence, addressing post-war consequences and searching for remains of soldiers from both sides.

On the occasion of Vietnam’s 68th National War Invalid and Martyrs Day (July 27), Osius showed his deep respect to Vietnamese invalids and martyrs and their families for their huge sacrifices to the motherland.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)