It also shows Vietnam’s success in international integration and strides towards a world of peace and security, said Colonel Nguyen Van Hai, who is military attaché and counsellor for military affairs at the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the UN.

When the Vietnam Peacekeeping Centre was opened in 2014, it has been set to become an international peacekeeping establishment. Over the past four years, the centre has been improved step by step to meet international standards, he noted.

Compared with some other ASEAN nations, Vietnam’s contributions to the UN peacekeeping mission was relatively modest but trained Vietnamese military personnel deployed for UN peacekeeping operations have been highly appreciated thanks to good training facility, the colonel explained.

Vietnam must exert great efforts for the launch of the first training course to be held at the end of this year as scheduled, he said, adding that the country will have to work with the UN to conclude a memorandum of understanding, develop training programmes and finalize necessary procedures to welcome foreign trainees to the course.

According to Hai, the UN has been carrying out a project to set up peacekeeping training sites in the Middle East and Africa and this year, it looks to expand the project in Southeast Asia. 

On June 25, the UN Department of Field Support (DFS) announced Vietnam is among four ASEAN countries selected to become the UN training sites following inspections of training facilities in Southeast Asia. The three other countries are Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Vietnam is preparing to deploy a second-level field hospital to South Sudan.

The country has sent 20 officers to work at the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic and the UN Mission in South Sudan, including a female officer, after nearly four years of training with the UN.-VNA