At the meeting, Deputy Minister Pham The Tung warmly welcomed Acting Assistant Secretary-General, Head of the UN Office of Mine Action and Police and UN Police Adviser Faisal Shahkar along with members of the UNPOL delegation visiting and working in Vietnam.
The Deputy Minister highly appreciated the delegation's visit, particularly their direct inspection and assessment of Vietnam’s Formed Police Unit 1 (VNFPU1) and their coordination in conducting the Assessment of Mission Service (AMS) for individual police officers.
Deputy Minister Pham The Tung emphasized that Vietnam consistently values and supports the UN's role in maintaining international peace and security. In this spirit, the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security considers participating in UN peacekeeping operations a crucial foreign policy task, reflecting Vietnam's responsibility toward the international community. He respectfully expressed gratitude to Mr. Faisal Shahkar and the UN Police Division for their close coordination, guidance, and support in selecting, educating, training, and deploying officers for peacekeeping missions.
"The results of our cooperation in recent years have contributed significantly to enhancing the capacity of the Vietnam People's Public Security forces, laying a firm foundation for us to expand our participation and contributions to UN activities," Deputy Minister Pham The Tung stressed.
With its experience in deploying individual police officers to field missions and seconding personnel to the UN Police Division at headquarters, the Ministry of Public Security continues to prioritize force preparation by improving selection processes, specialized training, and foreign language proficiency, with the goal of gradually expanding the scale, formats, and operational locations of participation to match Vietnam's capabilities and UN requirements.
"We thank you and the relevant UN agencies for creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese police officers to successfully fulfill their duties at missions. The high regard shown by the UN for Vietnamese officers demonstrates the Ministry of Public Security's deep commitment and sense of responsibility toward international issues," Deputy Minister Pham The Tung added.
For his part, UN Police Adviser Faisal Shahkar expressed his sincere appreciation to Deputy Minister Pham The Tung for receiving the delegation.
"We sees Vietnam’s strong commitment and clear desire to make more contributions to UN peacekeeping operations through force amplification and the allocation of necessary resources. These efforts are clearly demonstrated by Vietnam's involvement in diverse peacekeeping domains, an increasing number of individual officers, the establishment and upgrading of VNFPU1, and the deployment of individual officers to serve directly at UN headquarters," acknowledged Mr. Faisal Shahkar.
The UN Police Adviser paid special tribute to the Ministry of Public Security for its proactive efforts in promoting female police officers' participation in peacekeeping operations. He noted that the delegation's visit reaffirms the UN's continued backing for Vietnam's peacekeeping endeavors moving forward.
Addressing broader operational contexts, Mr. Faisal Shahkar highlighted current challenges facing peacekeeping operations worldwide, including shrinking financial budgets and personnel cutbacks at certain mission sites, which inevitably lead to fewer positions, heightened competition, and more stringent requirements.
In light of security risks facing officers in the field, Mr. Faisal Shahkar recommended that the Ministry of Public Security continue prioritizing specialized training to heighten safety and situational awareness among deployment candidates, while continuing to select and nominate top-tier individual officers who meet UN benchmarks.
