He also thanked the UN and Lacroix for supporting Vietnam’s participation in peacekeeping operations.
Minister Son affirmed Vietnam’s consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of external relations, advocating multilateralism and the UN’s central role, and respecting international law, particularly the UN Charter.
The country is ready to further contribute to UN peacekeeping operations in the time ahead and hopes for assistance in this regard from the UN and partners, he said, noting that basing on its historical lessons and experiences, it has continually worked to promote UN peacekeeping operations’ connection with local communities and build up trust to win people’s support so as to guarantee the operations’ efficiency and effectiveness.
For his part, Lacroix highly valued Vietnamese peacekeepers’ capacity, initiatives, and sense of responsibility at UN peacekeeping missions, highlighting that Vietnam’s participation has helped substantially improve the effectiveness of the missions’ activities and become good and important practices for peacekeeping forces to learn from.
Applauding Vietnam’s major contributions to the UN Security Council in 2020 - 2021 and the UN as a whole, especially in promoting the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, he called on the country to increase contributions to UN peacekeeping operations.
The UN official also affirmed continued assistance for Vietnam to build capacity and prepare personnel for effectively engaging in UN peacekeeping operations, including in terms of digital transformation.
At the meeting, the two sides also exchanged views on the world situation with many challenges, tensions, competition, along with non-traditional security challenges like climate change and disease outbreaks, which have caused numerous difficulties to peacekeeping operations and international cooperation.
They also underlined the need to keep stepping up multilateral cooperation within the UN framework, while reforming and improving the capacity and quality of UN peacekeeping operations as a useful tool for maintaining international peace and security.
