China's pledge of peacekeeping force helps meet "critical" gaps

China's pledge to establish an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force will help meet critical gaps in UN peacekeeping, UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations has said.

In a recent email interview with Xinhua, Herve Ladsous said "the announcement of China to establish an 8,000-member standby force is a robust contribution that has the potential to address critical gaps and better prepare our blue helmets to achieve their mandates."

At a peacekeeping summit held in the UN headquarters on Sept. 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will take the lead to set up a permanent peacekeeping police squad and will build a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops.

China is also to actively consider the UN's request of sending more engineering, transportation and medical personnel to join peacekeeping missions, and will train 2,000 foreign peacekeepers and carry out 10 mine-sweeping assistance programs in the next five years, Xi said.

China is also to deploy its first helicopter detachment in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, said the president.

"We are deeply grateful for China's new pledges to UN peacekeeping announced by President Xi," Ladsous said.

"China is a consistent contributor and partner to UN peacekeeping and these new commitments demonstrate once more China's leading role in supporting UN peacekeeping," he said.

According to UN statistics, China, which has been involved in peacekeeping missions for 25 years, currently has more than 3,000 peacekeepers deployed to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide and is the largest troop contributor among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

This year, China has concluded the deployment of a 700-strong infantry battalion in South Sudan. It's China's first infantry to participate in a UN peacekeeping mission.

"UN peacekeeping needs capable and highly-trained military and police personnel, niche capabilities, enabling equipment and specialized units that can be called upon to deploy to new missions or reinforce existing operations," Ladsous said.

Facing multiple and complex challenges like growing extremism in some regions, UN peacekeeping operations have been asked to be more flexible and adaptable to respond to situations on the ground, according to a review report of an independent panel on peacekeeping operations.

The report, submitted by the panel to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June, also called for building a stronger partnership on peacekeeping with the UN using its position at the nexus of a partnership with its member states and regional organizations to enable swift and effective responses to crises.

At the UN headquarters, Xi also announced that in the next five years, China is to provide a total of 100 million U.S. dollars in free military aid for the African Union (AU) to support the establishment of the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis.

"China's announcement to contribute financially to the AU and support the peacekeeping partnership in a number of critical areas such as engineering, medical and policing could significantly and positively impact the performance of UN peacekeeping," Ladsous said.

"I am looking forward to continuing working with China on the implementation of these pledges and future contributions," he said.