Despite the high praise being heaped at the Nepalese peacekeepers for their performance and Nepal ranking as the sixth largest troop contributor to UN operations, opportunities for Nepalese Army personnel has been declining due to “weak diplomacy.”
With the extension of deployment period from a maximum six months to one year, fewer military or police personnel will get the opportunity to participate in the global peacekeeping missions.
“If we don’t prepare ourselves for additional opportunities, our personnel might have to wait till 14-15 years to serve in the UN peacekeeping operations,” said the Brigadier General Tara Bahadur Karki, NA’s spokesperson.
As per the government decision, the NA has assured the UN of contributing 10% of the total strength (approximately 10,000). At present, 4,360 military personnel -- 4211 contingent, 63 observers, 86 staff officers -- have been participating in different 15 missions across the globe.
NA’s Birendra Peace Operations Training Centre (BPOTC), which trains NA personnel to serve in peace-keeping operations, has been training almost 6,000 peacekeepers annually.
Under the leadership of Chief of Army Staff Rajendra Chhetri, the NA’s training unit has been working to upgrade its training manual for bringing new packages to demonstrate its multidimensional capability based on protection of civilians, maintaining human rights and gender equality.
Among the nine areas for possible contribution identified by the NA are information technology, driving and radar operation, among others.
According to NA Spokesperson Karki, they are also focusing on language skills with more emphasis on French, English and Arabic.
Nepalese Army is expected to become the fifth largest contributor to UN missions after two of its ongoing trainings conclude within a few months, NA said.
At present, Bangladesh is the top contributor to UN missions, Ethiopia the second, India the third, Pakistan the fourth and Rwanda the fifth.
Joint-Secretary Shiva Prasad Simkhada at the Ministry of Defense, who looks after NA’s role in UN mission, said that it was very hard to get good opportunities as we have to compete with giants like India, China, among others. “But the government is working to diversify Nepalese Army’s participation in UN operations along with the formulation of national security strategies,” said Simkhada.
If we had a stable government and our ministers had maintained a sound diplomatic relations at the UN headquarters, Nepal would have been in a more comfortable position, he said.
Foreign Affairs expert and lawmaker Rajan Bhattarai also blames unstable political situation, among others, as one of the major reasons for weak diplomacy at the UN despite NA’s good performance. “Existing efforts, initiatives and roles of respective stakeholders are not enough to offset the influence of powerful countries at the UN,” he said.
The Nepalese Army has been participating in the UN peace support operations since over a half century ago, contributing troops for some 41 UN missions in which over 1,10,758 personnel have served.
Related story
NA ‘under-represented’ at UN peacekeeping command levels
