Vietnam prioritizes sending police officers to UN peacekeeping missions
The 3rd United Nations Police Summit (UNCOPS), the largest international police event organized by the United Nations, took place from August 30 to September 3, at the United Nations Headquarters (New York).
The event was attended by UN Deputy Secretary-General in charge of peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, other high-ranking UN officials and hundreds of police chiefs of UN member states.
The Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister of Public Security Lieutenant General Nguyen Duy Ngoc attended the event and sent to the United Nations a message that Vietnamese police force is ready to join UN peacekeeping operations.
At the conference, delegates discussed how to respond to challenges to peace, security and sustainable development in the current context; how to strengthen commitment to deploy police officers to UN peacekeeping operations around the world within the framework of the Action for Peacekeeping Initiative (A4P), the 2030 Agenda and the Goals sustainable development goals.
In an interview at the United Nations headquarters, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc said that the delegation of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam made a speech at the event, conveying Vietnam’s stance on UN peacekeeping operations. He said:
Firstly, the Vietnamese police force always upholds the rule of law, not only the domestic laws but also basic principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.
Secondly, the Vietnamese police force is a professional army with humanity so it will mobilize the masses to participate in the work of ensuring security. In other words, the more grassroots join the police in ensuring security and order, the more benign the situation in the locality is. So local authorities and police should attached importance to mobilizing local people to join the cause.
Thirdly, the Vietnamese police force is proactive and creative in applying scientific and technological advances in crime prevention and population management. As a result, the Vietnamese police force can control crime at home and also participate in UN peacekeeping operations to safeguard international peace and security.
This was the third time the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security's delegation had participated in UNCOPS apart from the two previous ones in 2016 and 2018.
During the interview, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc stressed that the Ministry of Public Security had been actively making preparations to send officers to United Nations peacekeeping missions while learning field experience from other countries.
Sending armed forces to work at UN peacekeeping missions is one of Vietnam’s priorities in international relations. So the Ministry of Public Security is focusing on selecting appropriate officers, training them in preparation for deploying them to UN peacekeeping missions on request.
The Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam proposed the UN to send experts and training programs to Vietnam to support it to train Vietnamese peacekeeping police officers.
