Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations of the UN (Photo: AP)

During a meeting with Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN on February 2, Lacroix highlighted Vietnam’s contributions to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan as well as efforts by the country to promote female officers’ participation in UN peacekeeping operations.

The Under-Secretary-General affirmed that he himself and the UN Department of Peace Operations will continue their close coordination with the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence in deploying Vietnam’s engineering unit in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), VietnamPlus reported.

Lacroix noted his hope that Vietnam will make more contributions to UN peacekeeping operations, and intensify the engagement of female officers and French-speaking officials. The UN official said he would like to visit Vietnam as soon as possible to hold working sessions with relevant ministries and agencies in this regard.

During a meeting with Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN and United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix. Photo: Vietnam Permanent Mission to the UN

In a related interview with the Vietnam News Agency correspondents in New York in 2021, Lacroix hailed Vietnam’s provision of level-2 field hospitals to South Sudan, stressing that this is the kind of capacity that the UN needs its member countries to contribute, as in the more dangerous environment that peacekeepers are working, better protection and medical support is required.

“I believe that Vietnam understands well what the priorities of peacekeeping are, and will do its best to respond to these priorities. That is why we really appreciate what Vietnam has been doing with us since started to contributing to peacekeeping operations in 2014”. Lacroix said that the UN expects to work more with Vietnam as the UN can see the country’s capacity through the deployment of level-2 field hospitals and the upcoming engineering unit.

Vietnam will make greater efforts to further contribute to UN peacekeeping operations. Photo: VNA

He hailed Vietnam’s efforts to improve the proportion of women peacekeepers (15 percent currently), adding that he believes that with the participation of more women, peacekeeping operations will be more effective.

The UN needs the more specific capacity to better protect peacekeepers, particularly against attacks, along with officers who can collect and analyze information, react quickly, and move more quickly to effectively support civilians in conflicts. These are areas of critical need to international peacekeeping operations, which are also potential areas that the UN can work with Vietnam.

An anouncement ceremony was held for the Vietnamese engineering unit rotation 1 and Level-II field hospital rotation 4 to be deployed to UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan. Photo: VNA

Looking back on UN operations in 2021, Lacroix said that he believes that the UN peacekeeping operations have been implemented successfully throughout in the difficult year of 2021 amid COVID-19, with peacekeepers ensuring the strict implementation of ceasefires and delivering humanitarian support and protecting hundreds of thousands of civilians in countries they are deployed.

Regarding major challenges facing peacekeeping operations currently, he pointed to a lack of unity among the international community to actively support political efforts and the seeking of political solutions. He also mentioned the challenges from the worsening conflicts as well as the security and political situation and the more dangerous environment in areas where UN peacekeeping missions are working.

In the recent minister-level meeting on peacekeeping, the majority of countries supported peacekeeping operations, and some countries proved their capacity to make more contributions to the operations, including Vietnam, he noted.

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