New York (FN), March 29 – Cambodian defense minister Tea Banh pledged further commitment to peacekeeping operations under the United Nations framework, speaking in a bilateral meeting with Jean Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

“Cambodia has prepared three forces to peacekeeping mission, including the engineering force, mind clearance, and Royal Gendarmerie,” said Minister Banh.

According to the minister, Cambodia has dispatched about 15-20 percent female peacekeepers.

“Women's participation in both military and police is important in promoting communications and cement bonds between people operating in the region,” said Jean Pierre Lacroix.

Cambodia will not take back her peacekeepers from Mali; the kingdom spent USD 15 million budget for purchasing armored vehicles to protect the kingdom’s peacekeeping forces to Africa’s Republic of Mali under the United Nations framework, Prime Minister Hun Sen addressed late March at the graduation ceremony held at National Institute of Education in Phnom Penh.

Since 2006, Cambodia has sent 5,783 peacekeepers, 277 females, to carry out UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan, South Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Chad, Mali and Central African Republic, according to Kosal Malinda, spokeswoman of Cambodia's National Center for Peacekeeping Forces and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance. Currently, 813 Cambodian peacekeepers, 50 females, are carrying out UN peacekeeping missions in five countries.

The United Nations is hosting the 2019 United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial on Uniformed Capabilities, Performance and Protection on 29 March 2019 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In the course of the meeting, Ministers are expected to highlight progress on relevant commitments made by Member States in the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.