Vietnam ready to make greater contributions to UN peacekeeping operations

Minister Son highlighted the remarkable contributions made by UN peacekeeping operations to efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts, as well as to protect and assist people in conflict-hit areas, thereby helping maintain international peace and security. He also thanked the UN and Lacroix for supporting Vietnamese participation in peacekeeping operations.

The Minister used the platform to reiterate the country’s unwavering foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification of external relations, advocating multilateralism and the UN’s central role, as well as respecting international law, particularly the UN Charter.

The nation therefore remains ready to further contribute to UN peacekeeping operations moving forward, with high hopes of assistance in this regard from the UN and its partners, he said. The FM noted that based on historical lessons and experience, it has continually worked to promote UN peacekeeping operations’ connection with local communities and build up trust in order to win people’s support in order to guarantee the operations’ efficiency and effectiveness.

In response, Lacroix greatly valued the capacity of Vietnamese peacekeepers, their initiatives, and general sense of responsibility during UN peacekeeping missions. He added that Vietnamese participation has helped substantially improve the overall effectiveness of the missions’ activities, thereby becoming important practices for peacekeeping forces to learn from.

Hailing major Vietnamese contributions to the UN Security Council in 2020 to 2021 period and the UN as a whole, especially in promoting the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, he called on the country to increase its contributions to UN peacekeeping operations.

The UN official also affirmed continued assistance for the nation to build capacity and prepare personnel for effectively engaging in UN peacekeeping operations, including in terms of digital transformation.

During the course of the meeting, both sides compared notes on the international situation that includes plenty of challenges, tension, and competition, along with non-traditional security challenges such as climate change and disease outbreaks. Indeed, all of these have caused numerous difficulties to peacekeeping operations and international co-operation.

They also underscored the necessity of keeping ramping up multilateral ties within the UN framework, while reforming and improving the overall capacity and quality of UN peacekeeping operations as a useful tool for maintaining international peace and security.