VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United Nations (UN) has lauded Indonesia`s significant contribution in maintaining peace and international security, as noted in a written statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received in Jakarta on Thursday.

"Indonesia will continue to increase its active role in the UN Peacekeeping Operation. Indonesia is also ready to contribute to the peacekeeping mission in Yaman as well as increase the number of female peacekeepers," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi noted at a meeting with UN Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

The meeting was held in the midst of the UN Security Council Open Debate in New York, the United States, on January 22, 2019. At the meeting, UN Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Lacroix lauded Indonesia`s active contribution, especially with the deployment of a battalion of 850 personnel recently to MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indonesia`s contribution aims to support the UN`s initiative to tackle challenges faced in maintaining peace and security.

Speaking in connection with the matter, Foreign Minister Marsudi conveyed Indonesia`s commitment to deploying a police unit of 140 personnel to the Central African Republic. The UN was also encouraged to innovate further, such as by considering co-deployment and the use of defense system from contributor nations.

"Moving forward, Indonesia is keen that both policy and the working system of the UN be adjusted accordingly to push for more female peacekeepers in the UN Peacekeeping Operation," she remarked.

Minister Marsudi added that Indonesia is ready to send more than 25 female police officers to the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) across the world in addition to offering female peacekeeping operation trainings. The MPP is a UN-backed public health organization working to increase access to and facilitate the development of life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries.

Indonesia`s contribution in peacekeeping operations is in line with the theme of its UN Security Council presidency, which is "peacekeeping," with focus on training and increasing the capacity of peacekeepers deemed vital to support the peacekeeping operations, especially in the face of ever-increasing challenges that the operations had to deal with, as well as good, long-term investment to boost the professionalism of Indonesia`s peacekeeping troops.

On November 2018, Indonesia had ranked seventh out of the 124 countries that contributed to the UN peacekeeping operations, with 3,545 personnel deployed to the eight UN peacekeeping missions, with 94 of them being women. The Indonesian government has also planned to achieve the target of sending four thousand peacekeepers for UN missions by the end of 2019 by increasing the number of female peacekeepers. (ant)