Maj. Nguyen Van Phong, former assistant at the political affairs division of Engineer Brigade 229, received the State President’s decision to work as a military observer to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
Leaders of the Ministry of National Defence also presented decisions to six other officers who recently concluded their services at other missions. They comprise four returning from the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), one from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and another from MINUSCA.
All the six officers served at the missions from February 2022 to February 2023.
Congratulating the officers on their fulfilment of duties, Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien, who is also head of the ministry’s steering committee for the participation in UN peacekeeping operations, said contributions by Vietnamese peacekeepers have left an imprint of the nation and the Vietnam People’s Army on the international arena.
He also recalled the opinions and acknowledgement by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in October 2022 and UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix in November of the same year during their visits to Vietnam about the country’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations.
Vietnam is proud to have female officers in UN peacekeeping operations making up over 13% of its force, higher than the average of about 9%, he said, noting that it is working to raise this rate and increase the scale and forms of its engagement in those operations.
