On duty at the South Sudan Mission (UNMISS) as military observers will be Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Kim Tinh from the Department of Planning and Staff of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and Lieutenant Nguyen Nhu Tuan from the School of Political Officers.

Major Tran Thai Son from the Son Duong Port Border Guard in Ha Tinh province will join the Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) as an intelligence officer.

The United Nations Interim Security Force in the Abyei (UNISFA) will receive four Vietnamese military officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Quoc Khanh from the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, as a civilian military coordination staff officer; Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Tiep, former lecturer at the Army Officer School 2, as a military observer; Major Nguyen Xuan Truong from the online Defense Journal as a military observer; and Captain Tran Nam Phuong from the Vietnam Coast Guard Command as a logistics staff officer.

Major General Hoang Kim Phung, director of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said the selected officers had participated in many domestic and foreign training courses.

On behalf of seven officers, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Kim Tinh said that he and his teammates had prepared well for the mission.

He promised to complete the task well, ensuring safety and building good relationships with local authorities and functional agencies of the Mission. 

They will also develop a regulation with working groups of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam to support each other, and contribute to spread the image of the country and people of Vietnam, and the image of Vietnamese soldiers in the new era with international friends.

At the ceremony, the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations also announced the work results of four officers who have recently finished their terms, including Colonel Bui Thanh Van, commander of the Vietnamese forces at the Central African Republic Mission; Major Nguyen Thanh Trung, officer at the Central African Republic Mission; Captain Vu Nhat Huong, communications officer; and Captain Le Vinh Hoang, intelligence officer.

Vietnam sent the first officers to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the South Sudan Mission in 2014. As many as 526 officers including 522 army and four police officers have participated in UN peacekeeping activities at three missions and the UN Headquarters.

Tran Thuong