Transcription
General laqua, thank you so much for joining us. It's good to be with you.
Thank you. The theme for this year's International Day of UN Peacekeepers is "Fit for the Future: Building Better Together." Can you tell us more about the message behind it?
We are in a world, uh, that is uncertain, where we have, uh, an increasingly high number of conflicts, and where, uh, the nature of conflicts themselves, uh, is evolving very fast. So, we need to adapt, and we need to work together with our partners, with our member states, not only to make what we do better, the peacekeeping operations better, but also to work towards building peace and durable peace.
This day is also about recognizing, honoring, and thanking the people who put their lives on the line in these very difficult, um, situations around the world. I know you traveled to South Sudan a few months ago. Do you have the sense that these peacekeepers realize the importance of their job more now than ever?
Well, I think that, um, uh, the, uh, uh, the fact that those peacekeepers, the civilians, the military, the police, uh, continue to protect civilians and to try to build peace, also protect and defend ceasefires in, uh, very challenging and difficult, uh, circumstances. I think this is really commendable, and that is why it's critically important to, uh, pay tribute to them, as well as, uh, those peacekeepers who, uh, made the ultimate sacrifice, uh, serving the UN.
You said so yourself, and we all know that there are more conflicts around the world, uh, these days, and very tense situations, uh, increasing. How is that impacting current peacekeeping missions?
I think that what is really impacting, uh, our peacekeeping missions is, first and foremost, that we have a more divided international community. And the UN, and particularly the UN's role in peace and security, is only as, uh, as effective and as strong as the unity and commitment of our member states is. And of course, this is something that applies to peacekeeping operations. We need a stronger and more united membership, not only to support peacekeeping operations, but also, and perhaps more importantly so, to support political efforts towards finding durable solutions to these crises.
The Secretary-General outlined a new agenda for peace ahead of the Summit of the Future. How do you and peacekeepers fit into that picture?
Well, the new agenda for peace, uh, as far as peace operations are concerned, says a number of things which are very important. It first of all says that, uh, those operations need, as I was indicating earlier, more united and committed support from member states. Number two, that, uh, the mandates that are given to peacekeeping operations need to be focused and prioritized, because, uh, peacekeeping is not a magic wand, you know. It cannot, and it never has, solved conflict by, by itself, you know. Peacekeeping is a tool that needs to be put at the service of a collective, uh, set of efforts to, uh, solve crises. So, mandates need to be prioritized. The number three message is that, uh, those efforts are currently ongoing to improve and adapt peacekeeping on safety and security and digital technologies, and improving the increasing the role of women in peacekeeping planning and performance. All of this needs to continue and even go further than what we currently do. I think the number four message is that we need to organize ourselves as a system to better address some of the critical drivers of conflict, such as the role of transnational criminal activities or global terrorism. And the fifth message is about peace enforcement. Peacekeeping is only relevant when, uh, it is based on an agreement between the parties, a ceasefire or a more detailed and substantive political agreement. If it's just about sending international troops or forces into a conflict without any kind of political agreement, then it's peace enforcement. Peace enforcement is war. It's not something that the blue helmets can do. It's something that others should be doing. And this is why, uh, the new agenda for peace says that peace enforcement operations carried out by non-UN entities must be better supported.
There's been a big push, uh, in recent years, to increase the number of women in peacekeeping operations. I know that is a, a priority. Can you talk about some of the qualities and and assets that, uh, women bring in different situations?
Well, first of all, um, we owe it to, uh, the communities that we're serving and supporting, because those communities, by definition, are, you know, 50% women and men, and we need to be a reflective peacekeeping operation. Need to be reflective of that reality. Um, we believe that, uh, peacekeeping with more women is more effective peacekeeping because it enhances our, uh, capacity to build trust, particularly build trust with the communities. And, uh, we're seeing that very clearly when, uh, we have more women in our uniformed components, but also with the civilians. So, it's a different way, and a more effective one, of building trust with communities that are often, uh, vulnerable and even traumatized by conflict.
China is the second largest contributor, uh, financially, to UN peacekeeping operations, uh, about 2,000 personnel on the ground as we speak. Can you talk about China's role and its significance in the big picture?
Yes, China's role is very, very significant, and also very constructive and helpful when it comes not only to supporting peacekeeping, to financial support, uh, even with some voluntary funding, which I highly appreciate, but also to the, uh, men and women, Chinese men and women, who are serving, uh, in, uh, many peacekeeping operations with a high level of professionalism and distinction. But what we also appreciate is the support by China to many initiatives aimed at improving the effectiveness of of peacekeeping. And I would just mention the leading role of China, uh, when it comes to safety and security of our peacekeepers, which is critically important. China has been pioneering a Security Council resolution on that topic and is leading a so-called Group of Friends of Safety and Security of Peacekeepers.
How has the role of peacekeeping evolved and changed over the last 76 years, and what new challenges, uh, do you face right now?
Uh, I think it's important to highlight that peacekeeping has been dramatically evolving, uh, over the last decades, and, uh, and the models of peacekeeping have been diversifying. But I think we will have to diversify further and to look at not only new models of peace operations, depending on how, uh, the various situations are, but also new ways of doing, uh, old things. In other words, if we were called today to monitor ceasefires, then I think how we would do it would be very different from, uh, 50 years ago, when, uh, uh, some of these, uh, peacekeeping operations that we still have, uh, were, uh, created or or were adapted.
Under Secretary-General, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you.