UN peacekeeping chief wants more cooperation with India

THE chief of United Nations peacekeeping has expressed optimism for more cooperation with India on the instrument, saying New Delhi has the capacity and technologies to help the Blue Berets (or Blue Helmets because of their light blue berets or helmets) deployed missions across the globe.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, under-secretary general for peace operations said ahead of the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial meeting scheduled in Seoul, South Korea, in December, that he has two messages for India, which is among the top troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping missions.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations  (Photo by ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP via Getty Images)

As of September, India is the third-highest contributor of personnel to UN peacekeeping, with 5,481 troops serving in 12 global missions.

“One is the message of gratitude, because India is one of our strongest supporters in all areas — political support, support in terms of capacities and involvement in the field,” Lacroix told PTI in a recent interview.

“Also I don’t forget the sacrifice of those Indian peacekeepers who lost their lives over the years while serving in peacekeeping missions,” he said.

“In addition to that, the second message is strong expectations. India has the capacities that we need,” he said.

Lacroix, a French diplomat, said India has the “capacity to help us” with qualified peacekeepers – both police and military – and the country “obviously” has the capacity to “help us to further increase the number of women in peacekeeping, both in the military and the police”.

“We would also expect to have more senior officers, female senior officers,” he added.

The Asian power, Lacroix said, also has a number of significant technologies that could help UN peacekeeping forces.

“So in all these areas, I believe that in addition to what India is already doing, which is a lot…we strongly believe that there’s a great potential for more in terms of our cooperation” with India, he asserted.

The UN Security Council under India’s presidency in August unanimously adopted two significant outcome documents on peacekeeping: The Resolution on “Accountability of Crimes against UN Peacekeepers’ and Presidential Statement on “Technology for Peacekeeping’, the first such UN Security Council document on this topic.

India had also announced the roll-out of the UNITE Aware Platform, aimed at increasing situational awareness and providing terrain-related information to peacekeepers. India has contributed $1.64 million (£1.2 million) for the project.

India, in partnership with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Operational Support, has also been working towards developing the mobile tech platform.

It partnered with the UN to roll out the platform initially in four peacekeeping missions -- MINUSMA (Mali), UNFICYP (Cyprus), UNMISS (South Sudan) and AMISOM (Somalia).

Earlier this year, the Indian government gave 200,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines for UN peacekeeping personnel deployed worldwide.

Lacroix expressed gratitude to India for its support to UN peacekeeping, saying, “We need the support of our member states.”

Emphasising that the challenges faced by UN peacekeepers are very high and are growing, the diplomat said, “At the same time, our peacekeepers are making a huge difference every single day — the prevention of escalation, the protection of hundreds of thousands of civilians — that is all extremely valuable and needs to be highlighted.”

The UN Peacekeeping Ministerial meeting will be held on December 7-8. The peacekeeping meeting in Seoul will be an opportunity to express “our gratitude to our peacekeepers,” Lacroix said, adding that it “would include the Indian peacekeepers deployed in our missions”.

(With PTI inputs)