New York (VNA) – The Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations held a ceremony in New York on May 24 to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers and 10 years of the country’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations.

Addressing the event, Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, head of the mission, reviewed the development of and contributions by UN peacekeeping forces over the last 76 years to maintaining peace and security and creating a favourable environment for sustainable development in many regions worldwide.

He also pointed out difficulties and challenges to peacekeeping operations at present, especially the complex developments and increasing geopolitical competition and conflicts around the globe.

Congratulating military and public security officers performing peacekeeping duties at the UN missions and headquarters on this occasion, he emphasised that Vietnam’s peacekeeping force is relatively young but has made significant contributions to international peacekeeping activities over the last 10 years, winning the high evaluation from UN leaders as well as the administrations and people in the host countries. The result evidences the Party and State’s right policy of sending Vietnamese personnel to UN peacekeeping operations since June 2014, helping to successfully carry out the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of international relations, and being a responsible and active member of the UN and the international community, Giang said.

The ambassador attributed the successful implementation of the policy on taking part in peacekeeping operations to the support and directions from the top Party and State leaders, along with the close coordination from relevant agencies, especially the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In particular, the efforts, sacrifice, mettle, and creativity of the units and individuals directly performing duties have helped spread the images and value of the Vietnam People’s Armed Forces, he added.

On behalf of the Vietnamese officers working at the UN, Military Attaché Colonel Nguyen Duc Quan pledged to continue efforts to properly fulfill the tasks assigned by the Party and State.

At the ceremony, participants also held a minute of silence in commemoration of UN peacekeepers who fell down while performing duties, including Lieutenant Colonel Do Anh of the Vietnam People’s Army.

On May 29, 1948, the UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) was officially deployed to maintain the enforcement of a truce between Israel and Arab countries. Since then, May 29 became the International Day of UN Peacekeepers.

For the last 76 years, over 2 million peacekeepers from 125 states have served at 71 UN peacekeeping missions. More than 3,000 of them have died while on duty.

In the past decade, over 800 blue-beret officers of the Vietnamese army and public security forces have been sent to the UN missions in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Abyei Area, the Department of Peace Operations at the UN headquarters, as well as the EU’s peacekeeping force at the Central African Republic./.