The United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix has highly evaluated Vietnam’s practical contributions to the organisation, including its peacekeeping activities, not only for what has been achieved but also for the potential to enhance cooperation between the two sides.
In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency in New York following Party General Secretary and State President To Lam’s attendance at the UN Summit of the Future and the 79th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 79), Lacroix noted that Vietnam has deployed forces to UN peacekeeping missions, including a Level-2 field hospital in South Sudan and, more recently, an engineering unit to the UN mission in Abyei.
The number of the Vietnamese personnel in peacekeeping missions is steadily increasing, including both men and women as well as police officers, both in the field and at the headquarters. He spoke highly of the quality of Vietnam's peacekeepers, adding that these developments reflect the excellent level of cooperation between Vietnam and the UN.
Affirming the UN’s desire to expand and intensify cooperation with Vietnam, the UN official said that on the sidelines of the UNGA 79, he met the Vietnamese Ministers of National Defence, and Public Security to discuss orientations to further promote the bilateral relations, including personnel training and capacity building.
As a ministerial meeting is expected to take place in the coming time, focusing on future peacekeeping activities, the UN hopes that by then, participants will contribute good ideas to implementing peacekeeping missions effectively and in line with the current international context.
It is conducting an assessment of peacekeeping operation methods to adapt to current global challenges, Lacroix said, looking forward to Vietnam's cooperation in this common effort./.
