Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Peacekeeping Training Center Commandants Conference in the capital on Wednesday, General Gurung said, "Given the complex task faced by the UN missions, the necessity of deploying capable peacekeepers to deal with conflict situation is more than important now." [break]
Gurung was referring to the importance of regional coordination and need to better train the peacekeepers deployed in various UN missions around the world from the Asia-Pacific region.
Held for the first time in Kathmandu, the four-day conference agreed to set up an Association of Asia-Pacific Peacekeeping Training Center (AAPTC) with its first secretariat in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was agreed that the secretariat´s responsibility would revolve around the participating member states every three years.
Peacekeeping Training Center Commandants from 10 countries -- Bangladesh, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand -- took part in the conference.
There were 36 commandants and facilitators in the workshop, which was organized by the Nepal Army in association with Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) under United States Pacific Command (USPACOM).
The conference was held with the objective to explore and identify areas of cooperation through a regional association among the member states and organizations.
The association will, henceforth, promote the exchange of information and experiences among training institutions regarding different training activities, facilitate the ability of peacekeeping training centers to be in constant dialogue with each other, and facilitate the efforts to harmonize the doctrine, training and research efforts of the member states.
Also speaking on the occasion, Brigadier General Imam from Bangladesh informed that the association will help to facilitate smooth flow of information from various UN missions, maintain a library and introduce new archival technologies.
"The conference proved fruitful in establishing the importance of effective cooperation and networking between different training institutions," he said.
The conference also looked at promoting understanding of the different institutional perspectives and organizational cultures present among military, police and civil components in peace operation.
American envoy to Nepal, Scott H DeLisi, pointed at the "inspiring leadership" role played by the troops of Asia-Pacific region in general and Nepal´s contribution since 1968 in particular toward UN peacekeeping.
"A regional training center will help future peacekeeping missions," DeLisi said.
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