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India's army chief calls for better UN consultations
United Nations, March 28
Representing the
largest contributor to the UN Peacekeeping Operations, India's Chief of
Army Staff Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag has called for better consultations
with troop-contributing countries in deciding mandates for the
operations.
Addressing the first UN Chiefs of Defence Conference
here Friday, Suhag reiterated India's concerns over the inadequacy of
consultations with countries deploying their forces in UN operations.
In
the past India has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the
Security Council in practice ignores the UN Charter requirement for
nations contributing troops "to participate in the decisions" of the
Council on their deployment. Reiterating the nation's commitment to the
world body's peace efforts, Suhag referred to India having contributed
over 180,000 troops to UN operations.
He said India would
continue to abide by the cardinal principles of UN peacekeeping, which
are impartiality, consent of the parties to the conflict and use of
force in self-defence or defence of the mandate.
India has 8,145
personnel serving in 12 of the current 16 UN operations. Historically,
Indian troops have participated in 43 of the 69 UN peacekeeping missions
and 156 have died while serving under the UN's blue flag.
Defence chiefs from 108 countries participated in the conference, the largest gathering of the world's top military leaders.
While
summing up the conference proceedings, Hervé Ladsous, the
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said the defence
chiefs felt "better clarity on mandates was required."
At the
start of the conference, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in "our
largest deployment in history" more than 130,000 military, police and
civilian staff from serve in the UN's 16 peacekeeping operations.
"It
must be matched by a stronger international partnership for
peacekeeping," he said. "Peacekeeping is a shared global responsibility
that advances the world's common interests."
"Over the past two
decades, the Security Council has given peacekeepers increasingly
challenging mandates," Ban said. "Effective performance demands broad
consensus on why, where and how peacekeepers carry out their mandates."
Atul
Khare, the Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, described the
recent efforts to improve the missions' ability to respond to respond to
challenging environment by adopting a comprehensive approach.
An
issue that came up at the conference was the growing problem of
asymmetric threats that peacekeepers face from adversaries using
non-conventional tactics.
According to Ladsous, to meet these
threats the defence chiefs emphasised developing better relations with
the local people where the troops operate and the deploying agile and
mobile units.
"Rapid deployment was recognised as an absolute necessity," Ladsous said.
(Arul Louis can be reached at [email protected])