UN official visits Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix on November 26 visited the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations (VDPO) under the Ministry of Defence as part of his visit to Vietnam to co-chair the International Conference on Women with the UN Peacekeeping Operations.

Meeting with the guest, Director of the department Maj. Gen. Hoang Kim Phung stated that Vietnam always appreciates the UN’s efforts and support in promoting bilateral relations with Vietnam, especially with the VDPO in joining UN peacekeeping activities.

According to the Vietnamese officer, since officially participating in UN peacekeeping activities in 2014, Vietnam has sent more than 500 officers and soldiers of the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) to UN peacekeeping missions.

Regarding group deployment, since Vietnam signed the first agreement with the UN on sending Level-2 Field Hospitals to South Sudan in September 2018, Vietnam has so far dispatched four hospitals of this kind with 252 medical staff to South Sudan, Phung said.

In 2022, Vietnam and the UN inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UN on the deployment of engineering units. The country sent its first engineering unit comprising 184 officers and soldiers to the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

All the officers and soldiers of the VPA participating in UN peacekeeping activities have well fulfilled their tasks, with more than 30% assessed to show excellent performance, Phung noted.

Notably, Vietnam has always maintained a high percentage of female officers at missions, he added.

For his part, Lacroix expressed his impression of successes that Vietnam has achieved in the UN peacekeeping work over the past time, and pledged to promote his role as a bridge to further strengthen the UN-Vietnam cooperation, especially in UN peacekeeping.

The official highly valued the VDPO for chairing and coordinating with international partners to successfully organise international training courses on peacekeeping, towards the goal of becoming a regional-class peacekeeping training centre.

While spotlighting Vietnam's great contributions to the implementation of women, peace and security (WPS) agenda, Lacroix said Vietnam has worked hard to realise commitments adopted at the Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting in the Republic of Korea last year.

He expressed his belief that the peacekeeping cooperation between the UN and Vietnam will become closer and more effective in the coming time.