Bangladesh has made 26 pledges to the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations at the 2019 United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial meeting.

“To meet the UN requirement, Bangladesh has pledged 26 PCRS components to UN including 09 components from Army, 06 from Navy, 03 from Air force and 08 from Police,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said at the UN on Friday, according to a message received here today.

While sharing ‘Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System (PCRS)’ of Bangladesh, he said, in addition, Bangladesh has also pledged a unit for operational-level Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (UAS) in partnership with the United States.

“We have also demonstrated our commitment by contributing to the norms setting part of the peacekeeping including through our active participation in Action for Peacekeeping Agenda and in other parallel processes like C-34”, he added.

Mentioning the atrocity crimes committed against civilians during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, the state minister said, “We have endorsed the Kigali Principles on Protection of Civilians (PoC). We have incorporated a strong and comprehensive PoC component in our peacekeeping training with in-built demonstration and tabletop exercises.”

He mentioned Bangladesh’s “zero tolerance” policy to sexual exploitation and abuse in the UN Peacekeeping and reaffirmed Bangladesh’s commitment for increasing the number of female peacekeepers to achieve the target set by the UN.

The state minister said Bangladesh has been supportive to the women, peace and security agenda of the UN since leading the adoption of the Security Council resolution 1325.

“We are currently developing a national action plan to empower women in playing their natural role as peacemakers,” he added.

The state minister stressed on the importance of adequate resources and critical enablers to ensure the safety and security and also the performances of the peacekeepers. He enumerated Bangladesh’s recent supplies of modern vehicles and other peacekeeping equipments in several UN missions.

He also highlighted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s commitment to UN’s Peacekeeping Operation which comes from the foreign policy guidelines as enshrined in the Constitution and the vision of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for a peaceful world. The Bangladesh delegation to the Peacekeeping Ministerial is composed of senior officials from Bangladesh’s armed forces, Bangladesh’s police and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.