UN team assesses Việt Nam’s readiness for peacekeeping activities

A United Nations delegation is making an assessment and advisory visit to the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre (VPC) from June 26-30 to examine the country’s peacekeeping capacity.

A United Nations delegation is making an assessment and advisory visit to the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre (VPC) from June 26-30 to examine the country’s peacekeeping capacity. — VNA/VNS Photo An Đăng

HÀ NỘI – A United Nations delegation is making an assessment and advisory visit to the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre (VPC) from June 26-30 to examine the country’s peacekeeping capacity.

The visit is to prepare for Việt Nam’s registration for Level 2 of the UN Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System, which entails sending military medicine and engineering units to UN peacekeeping operations.

At a working session in Hà Nội yesterday, VPC Director Colonel Hoàng Kim Phụng said Việt Nam’s participation in UN peacekeeping activities is part of a foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development. It is also to show Việt Nam as a responsible member of the international community and help popularise its image.

He noted the Vietnamese army’s engagement in UN peacekeeping receives much attention from the country’s leaders. The country aims to take over the level-2 field hospital in Bentiu city, part of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, in the second quarter of 2018.

It also plans to deploy a military engineering unit to a UN mission in the near future.

Those forces are undergoing specialised and pre-deployment training to be ready to perform peacekeeping tasks whenever the UN requests, according to Phụng.

The UN delegation lauded Việt Nam’s policy of taking part in UN peacekeeping operations, stressing that it is a critical factor in the long-term deployment of forces to UN peacekeeping activities.

Bianca Selway, a representative of the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations, said Việt Nam’s specialised capacity and preparations basically meet UN requirements.

However, it should step up training in foreign languages and knowledge of UN peacekeeping missions for officers in its peacekeeping force. — VNS