Heavy Engineering Equipment Course in Ha Noi, Viet Nam Triangular Partnership Project

H.E. Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defence Minister of Viet Nam

H.E. Mr. Norihiro Nakayama, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

I would like to begin by welcoming the trainees from Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal and Viet Nam and our trainers and interpreters from Japan to the UN Triangular Partnership Project Heavy Engineering Training of Trainers course. May I also express the United Nations’ sincere appreciation to the Government of Viet Nam for hosting the training, and to the Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister and his delegation for visiting us amidst your busy schedule.

I am pleased to join you at this opening ceremony and to give a few remarks on behalf of the United Nations.

Distinguished Delegates,

Today’s peacekeeping environment from Mali to the Central African Republic and from the Democratic Republic of Congo to South Sudan requires a range of strengthened capabilities. Where UN peace-keeping operations are active, high-quality enabling units in engineering and medical areas are increasingly in demand.

The Triangular Partnership Project was announced at the first Summit on UN Peacekeeping in September 2014. With Japan’s generous support through both funding and trainers, the Project had launched its first trial training in Heavy Engineering Equipment operations in Nairobi, Kenya by 2015.

Since then, with the support of partner Member States and hosts of the training including Brazil, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Rwanda, Switzerland, Uganda and Viet Nam, the Project has grown every year, and has so far trained 458 military engineers from 23 African and Asia-Pacific countries and 29 field medics.

Of these, many of the graduates have already deployed to peace operations such as MONUSCO (DRC), UNMISS (South Sudan), AMISOM (Somalia), MINUSMA (Mali) and UNIFIL (Lebanon). The Training-of-Trainers graduates of the Project are imparting further training in their home countries.

The United Nations is very pleased with the success of the Project to date. It would not have been possible without the strong support of partner Member States, our hosts of the training, the credibility that the Project has built, and the excellent performance of all the trainers and trainees who are part of the Project.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The triangular partnership model is increasingly being recognized in important fora and by key stakeholders as an effective mechanism to strengthen UN peacekeeping.

The Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN Peacekeeping Operations which was endorsed by over 150 UN Member States describes triangular partnerships as an innovative approach to training and equipping uniformed personnel. The UN Department of Operational Support (DOS) has made notable progress in strengthening peacekeeping capabilities in the engineering and medical fields

through the Triangular Partnership Project, which brings together the United Nations, Member States with expertise and resources, and the Troop Contributing Countries.

On 30 January this year, at a briefing in the UN Security Council during Viet Nam’s UN Security Council Presidency on ‘Cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations in maintaining international peace and security: the role of ASEAN’, the UN Secretary-General spoke about the Triangular Partnership Project, and thanked Viet Nam, along with Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia, for hosting the training courses on a rotational basis.

I am pleased to open our third training in Hanoi as a ‘Training-of-Trainers’ programme. Since I became the UN Resident Coordinator in Viet Nam in early 2017, the UN in Viet Nam has significantly and visibly increased its commitment to supporting Viet Nam’s efforts in increasing deployments to UN peacekeeping operations. In November 2018, UNDP organized an important conference on Viet Nam’s role in UN peacekeeping efforts and helped develop a discussion paper on Viet Nam’s long-term peacekeeping strategy together with the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support, which have now been renamed as the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Operational Support, respectively.

The training which starts today builds on the success of the engineering and medical training conducted in Africa, including in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, and the engineering training in Viet Nam in 2018 and again late last year.

The course objective is to provide trainees with the skills to instruct others in the operation of core Heavy Engineering Equipment such as bulldozers, motor graders, hydraulic excavators, bucket loaders and self-propelled vibratory rollers - in the execution of basic horizontal engineering tasks. This is expected to enhance local ownership and sustainability of the skills acquired.

Some of you, who perform exceptionally well, may be asked to participate as trainers and mentors in future United Nations Triangular Partnership engineering training courses.

Excellencies Deputy Defence Minister and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, and Distinguished Delegates,

Allow me to conclude by once again expressing my sincere gratitude to Viet Nam for

hosting this course and Japan for making available its trainers, interpreters and a liaison officer.

Deploying forces that meet our operational standards is a critical component of filling peacekeeping capability gaps. This begins with proper skills training and a robust equipment profile.

These are the capabilities that this Project aims to help build with your continuing strong support and active participation.

Best wishes to you all for a successful and productive training.

Thank you! Xin cảm ơn!