Deputy Minister of Defense, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh and the seven Vietnamese military officers, who will join the United Nations peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and Central African Republic (Photo: VNA)

Deputy Minister of Defense, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, said it is an honor and a pride for Vietnamese officers to take on the peacekeeping mission. But he reminded them that it is a tough task. “Working in a multinational environment, officers must show their ability of being adapted to a new environment, learning from experience, providing advices, and complying with disciples. Vietnamese military forces have fulfilled tasks of the UN and received very good response from the UN General Secretariat, commands of missions, and international friends,” said Deputy Minister of Defense Vinh. 

The officers are planned to leave Vietnam for South Sudan and Central African Republic in late June and early July.

Vietnam first joined the UN peacekeeping missions in 2014 with the establishment of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the Ministry of Defense and the dispatch of the first two officers to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan. After five years, Vietnam deployed 30 turns of officers to the UN’s two peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and Central African Republic to work as liaison officers, military observers and staff officers. The country deployed the first level-2 field hospital with the 63-member staff to South Sudan, and is preparing for the deployment of the second level-2 field hospital and a sapper company soon.