Appreciating the role of India in various United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions, the UN peacekeeping chief has said India is a “major partner” in the UN’s strategy for the digital transformation of peacekeeping. He lauded the country’s commitment and engagement through key initiatives such as ensuring accountability for crimes against the Blue Helmets.
India is currently the third largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping, with over 6,000 military and police personnel deployed to Abyei, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, the Middle East and Western Sahara.
“India is a major player in the world, in the UN, in multilateralism, and it’s a major player in peacekeeping as well, including but not only through the importance of its contribution in terms of troops and police. We’re also supported in many other ways, including in terms of the initiatives that we take to improve peacekeeping,” Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told PTI in an exclusive interview.
The UN peacekeeping chief highlighted the “important role” played by peacekeepers from India, one of the significant troop and police-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping.
Lacroix said India’s “engagement and commitment” in support of peace operations is critical, both politically through its contribution and in support of the department’s initiatives.
He further underlined the “role of India in supporting our initiative to make sure that peace operations will be up to speed in terms of digital technologies because this is absolutely critical. We have a strategy for the digital transformation of peacekeeping. ”
The UN marked 75 years of peacekeeping and commemorated the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on May 29 with this year’s theme of “Peace begins with me’.
Three Indian peacekeepers, who lost their lives serving under the UN flag last year, were honoured posthumously with the prestigious Dag Hammarskjöld Medal at a solemn ceremony last week.
