Lacroix, who visited Vietnam last month, made the praise while meeting Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN) on January 16 to seek measures to further promote cooperation between Vietnam and the UN.
The UN Deputy Secretary-General said that he witnessed and was impressed by the Vietnamese Engineering Unit’s successfully completion of difficult tasks assigned at the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).
He said that the UN is willing to support Vietnam during the process of preparing forces, training and carrying out pre-feasibility assessment as well as building necessary capacity that Vietnam needs.
He said that the two sides should coordinate closely in defining areas for cooperation, which are of the UN’s demands and Vietnam’s experience and capacity, thus further bolster the Vietnam-UN partnership.
Ambassador Giang thanked the UN for assisting Vietnam’s efforts in participating UN peacekeeping.
He underlined that promoting cooperation with the UN, including the increase of its involvement in peacekeeping activities, is one of the priorities in Vietnam’s external relations. Vietnam will continue to support targets and programmes of the UN within its capacity, including its commitments in increasing the number of women peacekeepers joining peacekeeping operations.
On the occasion, Ambassador Giang proposed that Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix and UN agencies continue to give Vietnam support in building capacity, especially for military and police forces joining peacekeeping operations, as well as other practical assistance, thus enabling Vietnam to better meet requirements and demands of the UN in carrying out UN peacekeeping operations.
