Deputy Minister of Public Security Senior Lieutenant General Le Quoc Hung hosted a meeting with United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix on the morning of June 12, in Hanoi. The meeting also saw the presence of UN Police Adviser Faisal Shahkar.
Welcoming the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations to the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung expressed his appreciation for Mr. Lacroix’s significant support for the participation of Vietnam in UN peacekeeping operations as well as for the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam in sending its officer to work at the UN headquarters in recent years.
Highlighting milestones in the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam’s engagement in UN peacekeeping operations, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung noted that since 2022, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam has deployed one officer to the Police Division under UN Department of Peace Operations and 5 working groups comprising 15 officers to UNMISS (South Sudan) and UNISFA (Abyei).
Currently, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam is completing procedures for the deployment of the sixth working group with six officers to MINUSCA (Central African Republic), he added.
The Deputy Minister also revealed that the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam is also actively preparing for the deployment of its first Formed Police Unit (FPU) to UN peacekeeping operations at the request of the United Nations.
On this occasion, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung proposed that UN Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix continue to support the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam to deploy individual police officers to UN peacekeeping operations, advocate the early deployment of Vietnam’s first FPU to a peacekeeping mission, and create favorable conditions for Vietnamese officers to apply for working positions at the UN Headquarters.
He also proposed that the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations support the Ministry to establish a Peacekeeping Police Training Center to meets international standards so that the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam can train both individual peacekeeping police officers and FPUs for Vietnam and other countries in the region in preparation for the deployment of UN peacekeeping operations.
Furthermore, the Deputy Minister requested support through UN coordination mechanisms in procuring equipment and vehicles for the first Vietnamese Formed Police Unit, as well as in ensuring the security and safety of Vietnamese police peacekeepers performing their duties at UN peacekeeping missions.
Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix highly appreciated the significant contributions of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam to UN peacekeeping operations and expressed his hope that the Ministry would further its participation in the coming time, especially amid complex developments in transnational crime and rising regional conflicts affecting civilian populations worldwide.
Agreeing with the proposals put forward by the Ministry, the UN Under-Secretary-General assured that the United Nations will provide favorable conditions for Vietnamese police officers to do their duties at UN peacekeeping missions.
He also confirmed that the UN will commit to assisting the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam in training and building capacity of Vietnamese police peacekeepers while regularly sharing information and practical experience and maintaining expert-level delegation exchanges in the field of peacekeeping.
