S/PV.8521 Security Council

As this is the first formal meeting of the Security Council for the month of May, I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute, on behalf of the Council, to His Excellency Mr. Christoph Heusgen, Permanent Representative of Germany, for his service as President of the Council for the month of April. I am sure I speak for all the members of the Council in expressing our deep appreciation to Ambassador Heusgen and his team for the great diplomatic skill with which they conducted the Council’s business last month. Adoption of the agenda United Nations peacekeeping operations Investing in peace: improving safety and performance of United Nations peacekeepers Letter dated 30 April 2019 from the Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General (S/2019/359)

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representatives of Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Slovakia, the Sudan, Thailand, Ukraine, Uruguay, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Viet Nam to participate in this meeting. In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the following briefers to participate in this meeting: Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho, Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Mr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat. In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I also invite the following to participate in this meeting: His Excellency Mr. João Vale de Almeida, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations; and Her Excellency Ms. Fatima Kyari Mohammed, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations. Before we begin the consideration of the item on the agenda, allow me to congratulate all Muslims in the world on a Ramadan Kareem. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2019/359, which contains a letter dated 30 April 2019 from the Permanent Representative of Indonesia addressed to the Secretary- General, transmitting a concept paper on the item under consideration. After consultations among Council members, I have been authorized to make the following statement on their behalf: “The Security Council recalls its previous relevant resolutions and presidential statements addressing peacekeeping. “The Security Council underscores the importance of peacekeeping as one of the most effective tools available to the United Nations in the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security. “The Security Council reaffirms the basic principles of peacekeeping, such as consent of the parties, impartiality and non-use of force, except in self-defence and defence of the mandate, and recognizes that the mandate of each peacekeeping mission is specific to the need and situation of the country concerned, and that the Security Council expects full delivery of the mandates it authorizes. “The Security Council welcomes efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General to mobilize all partners and stakeholders in support of more effective United Nations peacekeeping through his Action for Peacekeeping initiative, and recognizes the added value that the Declaration of Shared Commitments on Peacekeeping Operations has in relation to training and capacity-building. “The Security Council welcomes the United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial, the United Nations Chiefs of Defence Conference and the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit to strengthen support to peacekeeping operations, including in the area of training and capacity- building, and underscores the importance of fulfilling the pledges made by a number of Member States at the United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial in 2019. “The Security Council looks forward to the Secretary-General’s annual briefing, due in September 2019, further to resolution 2378 (2017).” This statement will be issued as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/PRST/2019/4. I wish to warmly welcome the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, and give him the floor.

I thank you, Madam President, for convening this important debate on peacekeeping training and capacity-building. It reflects your country’s strong engagement in peacekeeping, here in New York as well as in the field. I salute the more than 3,000 uniformed personnel from Indonesia who currently serve in eight of our operations, and I pay tribute to the 37 Indonesian peacekeepers who have made the ultimate sacrifice under the United Nations flag. Improving training is a major shared commitment of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. Training saves lives. Our peacekeepers are deployed to increasingly complex and often hostile environments. Training prepares them for their vital peacekeeping tasks and improves their performance. As we know, improved performance reduces fatalities. As such, training is a necessary and strategic investment in peacekeeping and a shared responsibility between Member States and the Secretariat. This system of collaboration was recognized in 1995. The General Assembly confirmed Member States’ responsibility for the predeployment training of uniformed personnel, while the Secretariat assists Member States by establishing training standards and providing training materials. The Secretariat is also responsible for training civilian personnel. We need to build on this approach of shared responsibility and deepen our collaboration. I thank the 151 Member States and 4 international and regional organizations that have supported the Action for Peacekeeping initiative by endorsing the Declaration of Shared Commitments on Peacekeeping Operations. In doing so, they have reconfirmed the shared responsibility for peacekeeping performance and stated their commitment to providing well-trained uniformed personnel. Today, I would like to update the Council on the Secretariat’s progress in fulfilling our commitment to training and capacity-building. On safety and security, we continue to take forward the action plan to improve the security of United Nations peacekeepers. This is supported by the roll-out of a comprehensive training plan. In the five high-risk missions — the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali  — we have conducted training support and assessment visits. We are also instituting casualty evacuation training, stress testing and crisis management exercises in these five missions. Strengthening medical training is another key component, and to help address the threat of improvised explosive devices and other dangers, we are working with troop- and police-contributing countries to ensure that units joining our missions meet our operational readiness standards before deployment and that they have undergone predeployment training in accordance with United Nations standards. We are also placing a renewed emphasis on in-mission training to ensure that our peacekeepers benefit from the necessary support in the field. We are particularly keen to develop the use of mobile training teams, and we are encouraging Member States to send such teams to provide targeted, flexible support to our missions. We have established a framework of performance standards and assessments based on continuous evaluations of military units, including command and control, protection of civilians, and conduct and discipline. And we have strengthened peacekeeping leadership training for civilians, military and police, including through scenario-based exercises. We are also working to increase the number of women in our peacekeeping operations. A talent pipeline specifically for senior women military officers is under development, and we are looking at how we can make mission environments more conducive to women. The Council’s continued support will be essential to enhance those efforts — through the provision of training programmes and mobile training teams, translating training materials into the six official languages of the United Nations and funding. Strengthening conduct and discipline is one of our key priorities. We are encouraged that the number of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping appears to be decreasing. But we are also mindful that we must be vigilant in our prevention efforts and seek accountability whenever the zero- tolerance policy has been violated. We must continue to do so in strong partnership with Member States. Conduct-and-discipline issues are an essential component of predeployment and in-mission induction training, which is mandatory for all civilian, military and police peacekeeping personnel. The Secretariat is helping troop- and police-contributing countries to improve their predeployment training on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, by making core training materials available and deploying mobile training teams to troop- and police-contributing countries in response to requests from those countries. I am pleased that our collective commitment to better train and equip peacekeepers has led to a number of effective triangular partnerships among the Secretariat, Member States that have expertise and resources, and Member States that deploy our uniformed peacekeepers. We have facilitated and conducted training for 330 uniformed engineers and 2,700 uniformed signals personnel. Many of the trainees, including 23 female officers, have deployed to missions, including the African Union Mission in Somalia, which we support. Following the success of engineering training in Kenya, we are launching a field medic assistant course in Uganda this year and will conduct engineering training in Viet Nam and Indonesia in 2020. We have made notable progress, but much still needs to be done. Training gaps remain in critical areas such as weapons handling, first aid, human rights and protection issues. To ensure the long-term sustainability of triangular and other partnerships and initiatives, I urge Member States to consider increased funding, in-kind contributions of equipment and the provision of trainers. I must also stress how important it is that we receive far more nominations of women to take part in training. We are grateful to those Member States that have sponsored 50/50 male/female officer courses, and we ask more Member States to do so. Improving performance is at the heart of our collective effort. We look forward to our continued collaboration.

I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing. I now give the floor to Lieutenant General Martins Filho. Lieutenant General Martins Filho: Before starting, I would like to pay tribute to Chief Private Exwin Lahansang, from the Indonesian engineer company deployed in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), who passed away this morning as a result of a heart attack. I express my deepest condolences to his family and to the Republic of Indonesia. I wish to congratulate the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations on the inauguration of its presidency of the Security Council, as well as to thank the Council for this opportunity. The idea of this debate on the Action for Peacekeeping initiative is indeed noble. It will enrich all of us, give us an opportunity for reflection and bring forth a myriad of ideas and experiences. MONUSCO is one of the largest and most complex peacekeeping missions under the umbrella of the United Nations. Since its inception, the Mission has matured and adapted itself well to the dynamic challenges and changing requirements. Despite the evolving scenarios and mandate requirements, one facet has remained constant, that is, the Mission has focused on innovation and professionalism with a view towards efficiency. The force and the Mission headquarters have worked well in synchrony, as part of a comprehensive approach to face the challenges on the ground in order to fulfil our mandate. In that respect, working in coordination with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and counting on its cooperation has become challenging and fundamental for the peace, stability and development of the country. The main priority for the Mission remains changing the mindset of all peacekeepers, civilians, military and police, who must comprehend the environment and the challenges and perform accordingly. A proper mindset is the basis for all that follows, from selection, preparation and training to the performance of individuals and troops. The core of our mandate — the protection of civilians — remains unchanged and requires building confidence among the population, implementing an effective intelligence system and our capability to prevent. In fact, preventive deployment and neutralizing the armed groups are the most effective ways to protect the civilians of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As is well known, there is no purely military solution for the problems and challenges we face in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: the solution is political and involves all components of the Mission. That is why the focus of our analysis, planning and operations since last year has been a comprehensive approach that incorporates the views, priorities and expertise of all concerned personnel deployed in the Mission area. We must also communicate better with locals and the international community. Prevention does not provide headlines. That is sad, but it is reality. The positive outcomes, the good things MONUSCO has done and the hard work of our peacekeepers are not known. For example, few people in the world, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, know that, during the past three years, more than 6,000 children were rescued from different armed groups and returned to their villages, or that, just recently, on 28 April, following the deployment of our troops in Mpati, North Kivu, 114 children were freed from armed groups as a result of joint, comprehensive work by the Mission’s components. In that regard, the force has implemented the “protection through projection” concept very effectively, in conjunction with that of “protection through presence”. We are still learning, but the results have been impressive. The number of attacks against villages and cities prevented just because we were able to deploy our troops at the first sight of a threat is significant. During the month of April alone, the force deployed more than 44 company operational bases and 26 standard combat deployment platoon sites, while also carrying out more than 8,500 patrols, day and night, and deploying Quick Reaction Force elements 4,163 times. The total number of operational activities surpassed 13,600. In terms of neutralizing the armed groups, it is worth mentioning that the most desirable outcome is for them to be disarmed and demobilized. More than 5,000 members of armed groups have surrendered so far this year, or have tried to do so. However, the process has not been completed because the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes are not yet well established. The MONUSCO force has also implemented many initiatives to bring peace and development to communities. The so-called quick-impact projects have contributed to preventing ethnic conflicts at low costs. In Kamako, Kasai Central, for example, water has been a flashpoint for the tensions among five communities: the Luba and Lulau, on one side, and the Tetela, Tshkokwe and Pende, on another. A quick-impact project to collect water, inaugurated on 9 January, was welcomed by all communities and has worked well in terms of lowering tensions. Another example is Lukweti, North Kivu, which is a remote and isolated village — no roads or communication with the outside world. The village had been under threat of attack by the Nduma défense du Congo-Rénové, which left the area after the deployment of our troops. The force prevented the attack and then developed a quick-impact project, which is ongoing, to build an antenna and a bridge. Those initiatives are contributing to providing protection and development. To focus on the main subject of this debate, I would like to highlight that training is an essential pillar to ensure the desired performance of our peacekeepers. Our troops must deploy in the Mission area fully able and equipped to carry out all operational tasks. Training is a continuous process that must also focus on the specifics of the Mission and its operational environment, which serves to underscore the importance of in-mission training. Predeployment visits, which focus on training, with the participation of representatives from the field, the development of in-mission training programmes for current and specialized operations and the deployment of mobile training teams are examples of initiatives that have been implemented to improve the quality of the troops deployed in the Mission. In that respect, MONUSCO welcomes the recent decision to deploy a team of jungle warfare experts in the Beni territory to improve its capabilities to plan and conduct offensive operations in the challenging jungle environment. We also welcome Headquarters initiatives to provide field missions with manuals, training exercises and courses at different levels, which will contribute to achieving the minimum level of homogeneity required for such deployments. In terms of capacity-building and performance, the following measures have been implemented. Regular safety and security audits of all company operational bases and enhanced force protection measures have been implemented to strengthen defence and force protection. The force has also formalized and promulgated standard operating procedures on the related subjects concerned. Regular evaluations of contingents have been carried out, with the results having been shared with Headquarters, with the aim of enhancing preparation and operational effectiveness standards. The contingents with significant performance issues have been reported on. MONUSCO has also adopted the online performance evaluation tool. Tabletop exercises and stress testing of various contingency situations are regularly practiced at all headquarters and field unit locations. Recently, a command post exercise was also organized for the furtherance of the Mission’s objectives. An analysis of existing security mechanisms for military observers has been completed with a view to suggesting explicit security guidelines for implementation. All security strands have been incorporated in the revised security guidelines for the purpose of standardization and uniformity. Casualty evacuation based on the 10-1-2 timeline response concept remains a challenge for MONUSCO, owing to the Mission’s infrastructure, aviation challenges and the size of the area of responsibility. However, the Mission has implemented it where possible. The command and control arrangements have been strengthened through regular field visits by the force leadership, brigade commanders and force headquarters staff. The existing reporting mechanism has been reviewed to ensure real-time flow of information at all levels. MONUSCO has implemented new air-threat and risk-assessment standards for all military aviation missions. The current deployment of the aviation assets is based on that threat assessment and the operational requirements. The force has undertaken various measures for enhancing and encouraging female engagement in MONUSCO, which will provide guidance and direction on the various ways MONUSCO can operationalize female engagement. The force headquarters has obtained formal certificates from all contingent commanders on caveats, and no caveats have been declared. I would like to reassure you, Madam President, Council members and all Member States that the MONUSCO force is committed to fulfilling the Mission’s mandate with innovation and professionalism and that the troops deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been proactive, showed willingness and worked hard to overcome the challenges and difficulties encountered on the ground. In conclusion, I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to the Council presidency for organizing this open debate on the implementation of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, as well as for extending an opportunity to me to express my thoughts. May peace prevail in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I thank Lieutenant General Martins Filho for his briefing. I now give the floor to Mr. Holmberg. Mr. Holmberg: I would like to start by congratulating the Indonesian presidency for organizing this open debate on training and capacity to improve the safety, security and performance of United Nations peacekeepers. Furthermore, I would like to commend today’s important presidential statement S/PRST/2019/4, which paves the way for our work ahead. I thank you, Madam President, for providing space for the International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations. The Challenges Forum is a partnership of 49 departments and organizations from all over the globe  — civilian, military and police. Seven out of the Security Council’s 15 members are also partners of the Challenges Forum. For more than 20 years, the Challenges Forum has used its convening power to build bridges, generate innovative ideas and promote results for more effective peace operations. In 1989, when I entered the Peace and Conflict Studies programme, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Cold War ended. Ten years later, I stood outside the gates of the United Nations as a Junior Professional Officer inspired and guided by the late Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s words and mantra “Delivering as One”, or “One United Nations”, to avoid stovepipes and work effectively together towards common goals. Once again, we have a unique opportunity to benefit from the fruits of United Nations reforms, not least regarding the shared commitments of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, which are aimed at refining one of the United Nations and its Member States’ most important instruments for peace, security and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. This comes at a time when the United Nations and other multilateral institutions are needed more than they have been in many years. The purpose of this briefing is twofold: first, to share the partners’ recommendations relevant to today’s topics from our 2018 Annual Forum, which was hosted by the Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Swedish armed forces in Stockholm in November; and, secondly, to share recommendations from Challenges Forum’s updated guidance for senior mission leaders of United Nations peace operations, a process which was initiated by the Indonesian Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 2016 and furthered by the Center for Strategic Research of the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs at our Annual Forum in Istanbul 2017. The Challenges Forum’s report entitled Considerations for Mission Leadership in United Nations Peacekeeping has been a key guidance in United Nations training of mission leaders since 2010. Starting with the Challenges Annual Forum 2018, I would like to share four recommendations for safety, security and performance. First, the United Nations Secretariat could, in cooperation with Member States, develop an interactive electronic archive of different complex and challenging scenarios. Those could be used for field training and generic training exercises. That should be complemented with mission-specific training on the operational environment shortly prior to deployment and combined with an effective e-roster of troop- and police-contributing countries to ensure just-in-time training. That would allow for a better understanding of the context they will be deploying to and entrench the necessary mindset. Secondly, in addition to learning from our mistakes, it is perhaps equally important to build on good practices on safety, security and performance. Based on the risk premium award process, the Secretariat and field missions could identify and share examples and case studies of instances where peacekeepers have performed exceptionally in the field for use as part of training exercises. Thirdly, Member States, the Secretariat and field missions can use the Elsie Initiative on Women in Peace Operations for improving operational effectiveness, for example, by deploying women in operational and outward-facing roles, such as female engagement teams and female investigation teams, but also in combat-related roles, thereby broadening the spectrum of deployment. Moreover, the Elsie Initiative could be used to identify mechanisms and incentives to encourage troop- and police-contributing countries to increase women deploying to the field, especially in identifying and including a critical mass of female mid-management officers, in addition to the present efforts for positions at the senior level. Fourthly, it is essential to clearly communicate information on the priority of different training gaps and needs so that Member States can concentrate their support. The use of a light coordination mechanism, highlighted in the shared commitments of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative and implemented by the Department of Peace Operations, could also be used for that. Furthermore, to improve training, online surveys can be used as part of monitoring and evaluation systems to determine whether training was effective and/or can be improved. Finally, all uniformed personnel should have completed the online training, entitled “Basic and advanced security in the field”, provided by the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, before deployment. With regard to this topic and with the memory still fresh of yesterday’s service for peacekeepers who fell serving the cause of peace in 2018, the Challenges Forum also recommends that all peacekeeping stakeholders  — both Member States and the Secretariat  — ensure that they fulfil their responsibility of care for returning military, police and civilian peacekeeping personnel. Turning to the second area of the briefing — the partnership’s work on senior-mission leadership  — it has been led by eight co-Chairs from the United Service Institution of India; the Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding of Egypt; the Civil- Military Centre of Australia; the Folke Bernadotte Academy of Sweden; the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute of the United States of America; the National Defence University of Pakistan; the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces of Switzerland; and the Institute for Security Studies of South Africa, all in consultations with the Secretariat. Three generic recommendations can be extracted for improving safety, security and performance. The report prepared by Lieutenant General (Retired) Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, entitled “Improving Security of United Nations Peacekeepers”, also highlights that effective leadership is a key condition for security. First, it is important to strengthen training of leaders on team-based leadership to function effectively as a mission leadership team, but also to apply modern management tools and approaches, that is, to have tools to convert vision and political strategies into action and mission results for peace. The initiative of the Secretariat and the Department of Peace Operations on the comprehensive performance assessment system is an important step in that direction. Secondly, in addition to predeployment training, it is also important to provide in-mission, scenario- based training for senior- and middle-management teams. That is especially important to civilian leaders, as they usually have had less exposure to scenario- based training than uniformed personnel. Training together builds the cohesion of teams and increases preparedness, effectiveness and the capability to manage mission security. Thirdly, we must ensure sustainability and expand on the initiative to provide mentors for women and men serving as senior mission leaders. Leadership is a harsh task, many times without simple decisions, but balancing between polarities, such as host-country consent, on the one hand, and the protection of civilians, on the other. Mentors can play an important role in helping senior mission leaders cope with and manage difficult considerations. In 2020, the Challenges Forum aims to launch a web- and application-based leadership e-tool for in-mission support, in cooperation with the United Nations, together with interactive artificial intelligence and tailor-made support for leaders in specific posts, example cases and videos with guidance from former leaders, both for online and offline use so it can be used in mission settings. One of Challenges Forum’s strategic objectives is to support the effective development and reform of peace operations, and another is to help strengthen mission leadership. From 9 to 11 June, Challenges Forum partner the Government of Canada will host our 2019 Annual Forum, looking at both those examples, especially in connection with the “how” and “who” aspects of the implementation of the action for peacekeeping initiative from a field perspective. The participants will review similar themes discussed by the Security Council at last week’s Security Council retreat, namely, the primacy of politics, strengthening peacebuilding in peace operations, and effective transitions. Furthermore, we will also look at coherent and effective mission leadership and management. We hope to be able to brief the Security Council on the outcomes and recommendations at a future meeting. Finally, the Challenges Forum partnership will continue to work closely with the Secretariat, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and Member States on training and capacity-building. We will also continue to seek complementarities and synergies with the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network, which provides essential and evidence-based insights, the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres and important Action for Peacekeeping initiatives, such as the Egyptian Government’s Cairo Roadmap. Twenty years ago, I stood by the East River as a young United Nations junior professional officer. Now with some grey in my beard, I still feel quite inspired and see opportunities to work for One United Nations and increase the effectiveness of peace operations. To that end, all of us must keep walking the walk, convert words into action and turn Action for Peacekeeping commitments into real results on the ground. The Challenges Forum partnership is committed and prepared to accompany the Security Council on this imperative journey ahead, which is paved not only by challenges, but also by opportunities.

I thank Mr. Holmberg for his briefing. I shall now make a statement in my capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia. For decades, the Blue Helmets have been a distinct model of a global partnership, collective leadership and shared responsibility for peace. However, with today’s new political and security realities, the challenges facing our peacekeepers are enormous. The incident in Mali in January brings those realities home. From the changing nature of conflicts to a lack of commitment to a political solution; from inadequate preparation of troops to the possible involvement of transnational actors, including terrorists and relocated foreign terrorist fighters, all those impact the safety and performance of our Blue Helmets. It is important to keep in mind that the Blue Helmets represent this organ at work. They represent the face of the Security Council on the ground. The Blue Helmets are the guardians of peace, protecting millions around the globe. Moreover, it is often overlooked that a peacekeeping mission is more efficient than unilateral actions. Deploying Blue Helmets in a mission is eight times less expensive than unilaterally deploying forces. For that reason, Indonesia fully believes in peacekeepers, in adequately preparing them and in investing in their performance. Investing in our peacekeepers is investing in peace. As conflicts evolve becoming increasingly multifaceted, our support for peacekeepers must keep pace with the challenges at hand. In that regard, I wish to underline some pertinent points. First, a mission-specific approach is necessary. A one-size-fits-all approach is not sufficient. From the perspective of a troop- and police-contributing country, the success of a mission will depend on adequate predeployment preparation grounded in the knowledge of local needs and conditions. That requires improved consultations among the Council, host countries, contributing countries and the Secretariat to ensure better synergy linking mandates, actual needs on the ground and training. Secondly, community engagement is crucial. Let me share a story from one of our peacekeepers, Major Gembong, who is currently serving in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He witnessed families separated by conflicts and took the initiative to work for family reunification. With his team, they talked to community leaders, heads of villages and families to enable the reintegration of former combatants into the community. So far, 422 former combatants have been reunited with their families, and peace prevails. Indeed, peacekeepers’ capability should go beyond basic soldiering skills and be complemented by soft skills, such as communication and trust-building. Thirdly, investing in women equals investing in peace. Female peacekeepers are more effective in winning the hearts and minds of the local population and providing comfort for those traumatized by conflicts. There is strong evidence that women’s participation in peace processes increases the likelihood of sustained peace by 20 per cent and contributes to longer-lasting and more resilient peace. We must therefore make peacekeeping more conducive to the inclusion of female peacekeepers by working in partnership. Indonesia is committed to enhancing the role of female peacekeepers. For the first time, the number of our female peacekeepers exceeds 100, and we are committed to achieving more. Beyond female peacekeepers, Indonesia is determined to continuously enhance the role of women as agents of peace. That is why we organized the Regional Training on Women, Peace and Security, held in Jakarta last month, for young female diplomats in the South-East Asian region. Finally, training requires partnerships. As our challenges become ever more complex, training should be adaptive. That requires investment in training and capacity-building, supported by partnerships among Member States. Council members may rest assured that Indonesia stands ready to engage in that regard. We wish to offer the Indonesian Peacekeeping Training Center to serve as an international training hub. Indonesia also sees the benefit of more innovative approaches in training, such as triangular partnerships. We will therefore host the Triangular Partnership Project in 2020 and 2021 to provide quality training for peacekeepers in South-East Asia and beyond. Another possible area is joint training to support co-deployments between contributing countries. Indonesia is keen to explore that further. United Nations Peacekeeping is the portrait of multilateralism at its best. It is the most legitimate and effective tool to maintain peace. We are pleased that the Council has adopted presidential statement S/PRST/2019/4 on that issue  — the first document of the Council focusing on training and capacity- building that will promote the performance, safety and security of peacekeepers, in support of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative of the Secretary-General. Let us all stand firm behind our Blue Helmets and provide them with all the support they deserve. I now resume my functions as President of the Council. I now give the floor to the other members of the Council who wish to make statements.

Мy delegation welcomes your presence, Madam President, as well as that of the Secretary-General and the high- level representatives of some States members of the Security Council at this open debate on the training and capacity-building of United Nations peacekeeping operations. That high-level participation enhances the prestige of this debate and demonstrates once again that the quest for appropriate approaches to improving the effectiveness of the United Nations peacekeeping missions remains our common concern. Côte d’Ivoire welcomes Indonesia’s efforts leading to the adoption of presidential statement S/PRST/2019/4 on that issue. We also commend Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho and Mr. Björn Holmberg for their timely briefings. I would like to highlight that Côte d’Ivoire endorses the statement to be delivered by Ambassador Fatima Kyari Mohammed, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations on behalf of the Group of African States. Despite the criticism that they sometimes receive, United Nations peacekeeping operations are one of the most effective tools for the promotion and maintenance of peace and international security. While the basic principles and doctrine underlying peacekeeping operations have remained unchanged, the conflict typology and deployment environments of United Nations missions have undergone profound changes. Those transformations, which impact the security of military and civilian personnel and the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations, raise new issues to which the international community will have to provide appropriate and innovative responses. For Côte d’Ivoire, the training and capacity- building of peacekeeping operations in the current context must be seen as a shared responsibility requiring the collective efforts of all peacekeeping partners. To that end, the Secretariat, the Security Council and the troop- and police-contributing countries have a prominent role to play in the framework of a concerted and coordinated approach. One objective of training and capacity-building for peacekeeping operations is to improve their operational effectiveness and performance culture in the implementation of their mandates. In that regard, my country welcomes the convergence of views among peacekeeping actors on the importance of training in the predeployment phase of troops and other components of United Nations missions, as well as the strengthening of their capacities throughout a mission’s life cycle. Indeed, predeployment training makes it possible to prepare the mindset of the military and civilian personnel for prior understanding of the existing challenges in the sociopolitical and cultural environments of their areas of deployment, as well as the security risks that arise there. With regard to military components in particular, training should essentially take into account the knowledge and perfect mastery of the equipment made available to them, especially those relating to transport and communication. It should also focus on strategies for combat and the protection of troops, including medical evacuations. It is therefore incumbent on the troop-contributing countries, with the support of the United Nations and all technical and financial partners, to provide their respective contingents with equipment conforming to accepted standards in order to enable them to deal effectively with recurrent attacks by asymmetrical forces. In addition, if it is to be complete, the training provided to the staff of the United Nations missions must focus on the protection of civilians and respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. It should also take into account the role of women in peacekeeping missions and the added value they bring to mediation, the prevention of community tensions and the fight against sexual violence in conflict. For 13 years, my country hosted the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire, which, through exemplary cooperation with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, contributed to the early restoration of peace, stability and prosperity. Building on that experience and driven by the desire to play its full part in the maintenance of international peace and security, my country seeks to contribute through its forthcoming deployment, without operational restrictions, of a contingent of 650 troops within the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. The preparation of that contingent, in accordance with the provisions of the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations that it has endorsed, is nearing completion. Côte d’Ivoire takes this opportunity to commend the invaluable support of the Secretariat on the training of the future Ivorian peacekeepers who will join the 150-strong protection battalion already deployed in Gao. It is undeniable that the success of peacekeeping operations is the collective responsibility of all peacekeeping actors. It is therefore incumbent on us all to work harder to improve the coordination of efforts, in particular by creating synergies between the supply and demand of training, identifying best practices and sharing lessons learned from ongoing missions to inform the deployment of future missions. In conclusion, I reiterate Côte d’Ivoire’s ongoing support for the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative and the Declaration of Shared Commitments, which is the crucible of broad consensus on the need to work together to improve the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations, whose crucial role in the preservation of international peace and security needs no further demonstration.

At the outset, I would like to thank the Secretary-General and the other speakers for their briefings today. Peacekeeping is an arduous task to which we have been committed since the Organization was founded. From the beginning, peacekeeping operations have been the vital and indispensable tool for carrying out that responsibility. In the current context, peacekeeping has given rise to constant and changing challenges that have imposed on the States Members of the United Nations the obligation of fulfilling the objectives set out in the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. We recognize the leading role played by peacekeepers deployed in highly dangerous missions, where many have lost their lives in the service of peace. That sacrifice requires the adoption of measures necessary to equip peacekeepers with the capacities that will allow them to carry out their duties optimally, thereby ensuring efficient and effective performance on the ground. The provision of humanitarian assistance in safe spaces depends to a large extent on effective collaboration between humanitarian action and peacekeeping. Working closely with humanitarian actors therefore continues to be a core activity of peace missions. In order to do that, we must increase our military personnel’s capacities with regard to humanitarian work and the principles and rules that govern this area. While we acknowledge the exclusively civilian nature of humanitarian action, increasing the coordination between civilian and military efforts on the ground is essential. Peacekeepers are under constant threat of attack, which is an obstacle to their implementation of mandates, and that is why measures must be taken to protect them. Adequate training for peacekeepers, both before deployment and while on mission, is crucial to developing their skills in various areas with the aim of ensuring their own safety, their best possible performance of their functions and the effective implementation of their mandates. The link between the training, security and protection of peacekeepers is undeniable. Given the new and increasingly varied challenges threatening international peace and security, we believe that it is vital to continue supporting concrete measures to improve training, capacity-building and the implementation of joint and coordinated mechanisms by the Secretariat, troop-contributing countries, regional and subregional organizations and the Security Council. Some such measures include the collective and proactive analysis of the specific threats on the ground that interfere with the fulfilment of mandates, strategic planning for decision-making in emergency situations, training in areas related to every context and ongoing assessments of peacekeepers so that they can be held accountable when their results are unsatisfactory or when good work is recognized. In that context, I would like to highlight some additional points. It is important to train peacekeepers on gender issues in order to ensure that they are taken into account in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of peace operations. In addition, we must deploy gender and women’s protection advisers and strengthen zero- tolerance policies for sexual and gender-based violence committed by peacekeepers. It is crucial that United Nations missions prioritize visible and tangible respect for women’s physical well-being and safety. Troop- contributing countries must also work to increase women’s representation in missions and implement the necessary legislative reforms for ensuring gender training prior to deployment. The Dominican Republic has endorsed the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and Preventing the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers. We believe it is vital that appropriate provisions on the protection of children be included in all United Nations peacekeeping mandates, as well as measures to ensure that all children, including those associated with State or non-State groups, are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law. In some circumstances, effective training on the impact of climate change on social stability and as a multiplier of threats to human security is as important as military training. Through their contact with the communities they serve, peacekeepers have a two- way channel of communication that they can use for collecting information on communities’ climate concerns, thereby raising awareness of the possible implications for peace and security and contributing to risk management and resilience-building plans. We also advocate for peace missions that do not contribute to environmental pollution and thereby to creating new climate vulnerabilities. We therefore believe that we must take concrete steps to achieve sustainable peace missions, for example by using renewable energy sources. In addition, the role of young people should be mentioned in peacekeeping missions’ mandates and reports, as it was for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia. In conclusion, as a signatory to the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, between 2000 and today the Dominican Republic has made modest but significant contributions to several peacekeeping missions, including in Kosovo, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Colombia. Those missions have been supported by training programmes and academic training in areas that include women in armed conflict, the prevention of violence against women, international humanitarian law, human rights, languages and the rights of refugees. That is because we believe that investing in peace essentially represents working towards building a better world for present and future generations, one based on multilateralism, best practices and the common good in order to achieve the inclusive, sustainable and peaceful world we all dream of. Lastly, we believe firmly that the maintenance of peace is everyone’s responsibility and that only with the will to do so and joint efforts can we achieve lasting and sustainable peace.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate the Islamic world on the blessed month of Ramadan and to thank Indonesia for choosing the topic for today’s debate. I also want to thank Secretary-General António Guterres for his informative and important statement, and the Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat for their thorough briefings. The State of Kuwait aligns itself with the statement to be made by the representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. I would like now to discuss today’s topic, with particular reference to three points — reform, the role of peacekeepers and our responsibility. The State of Kuwait would like to reiterate its support for the reforms undertaken by the Secretary- General in the area of peace and security, including the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. We also reiterate our support for the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, which we have endorsed, along with all the members of the Security Council. The Declaration is a powerful expression of our willingness to develop and build peacekeepers’ capacities. As the Secretary-General just said, training can save lives and is a joint responsibility. We commend the fact that many States, including Indonesia, convened the first meeting of the tripartite partnership, which is an important and necessary step for strengthening coordination and consultation efforts. We cannot but emphasize the priority given to political solutions in peace operations. That requires operations that are capable of supporting political processes, depending on their mandates. Most peacekeepers are operating in difficult environments, and sometimes they contribute to the prevention of war crimes, again depending on the mandate of each mission. They are in the forefront with those who protect civilians in certain conflict areas. They also facilitate and protect humanitarian aid convoys. Consequently, it is important that troop-contributing countries participate as much as possible in the elaboration of the mandates that they will be in charge of implementing and defending in order to ensure greater coordination and unity of effort, so as to guarantee the success of the mandate. As the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia mentioned a while ago, the cost of peacekeeping operations is eight times less as compared to the cost of bilateral actions. As far as our responsibility is concerned, what I just mentioned is only a part of the significant role played by peacekeepers. What we need to do is formulate mandates that take into account the needs of host countries and their citizens, as well as the political processes that we will need to support. To that, we would add the training, language and logistical skills that must be provided to peacekeepers. We stress the inherent right of each country to train its troops and choose its priority skills. We must also respect the rules that govern the selection of peacekeepers and police units in peacekeeping operations in a way that makes it possible to implement the mandate of each operation. As the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia mentioned, it is true, and we agree with her, that there is no one size that fits all. We also welcome the commitments made by States during the Peacekeeping Ministerial held on 29 March. In conclusion, we would like to express our appreciation and pride for the role played by women in peacekeeping. Experience and studies have shown that the participation of women contributes to perpetuating peace. We are proud of the peacekeepers in general. Some of them have sacrificed their lives to maintain and defend peace. We would like to reiterate the support of the State of Kuwait for the efforts of all troop- contributing countries, and for the active role played by Indonesia in peacekeeping as well as in involving all stakeholders.

I thank you, Madam President, for your presence here in New York; it is very nice to see you again. I join others in thanking Indonesia for focusing this debate on this very important issue, and I pay tribute to your country’s role in United Nations peacekeeping. I also thank Lieutenant General Martins Filho and Mr. Holmberg for their briefings. The United Kingdom is proud to be one of the first Member States to endorse the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, in support of the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative. Providing peacekeepers with comprehensive and high-quality training will help them deliver across all the other pillars of that rightly ambitious initiative. As other speakers have said, the better trained the peacekeepers are, the better prepared they will be to perform to the highest standards. That will include ensuring their own safety and security. As has been mentioned, many of us attended that moving memorial ceremony yesterday, which was a stark reminder of the dangers that United Nations peacekeepers face on a daily basis. Better training will mean that peacekeepers are better equipped to meet the challenges of unpredictable, complicated and complex multidimensional mission environments. I would like to say a few words about performance. Peacekeepers should all meet required standards in basic military or policing skills — the so-called green skills; however, we believe that the best performing peacekeepers are those who are also well versed in blue skills, such as the protection of civilians, the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse and compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights law. The United Kingdom recognizes that, like all troop- and police-contributing countries, we bear the responsibility for training and equipping our uniformed personnel. If we fail to prepare them to perform to the highest standards in the field, we not only fail them, but we also fail the civilians they have been deployed to protect. Therefore, if any Member State fails in that respect, we believe it is right that they should be held accountable for the failure and learn all the necessary lessons from it. In that context, my Government reiterates its support for the Secretary-General’s development of an integrated performance policy framework for United Nations peacekeeping operations. I would like to underline the importance of robust predeployment verification visits to ensure that uniformed personnel are fully prepared for their missions. Lieutenant General Martins Filho’s briefing mentioned the important issue of field missions reporting contingent-performance issues to Headquarters. If I may, I would like to use this occasion to urge the Secretariat to provide the Council with regular updates on such issues and what remedial action is to be taken, in the interest of transparency and accountability, and as set out in resolution 2436 (2018). I would also like to say a word about partnerships. Each Member State brings invaluable experience and expertise to peacekeeping; as such, more effective and efficient sharing of insights, lessons learned and best practice helps us all. To that end, we support the Secretary-General’s initiative to develop a light coordination mechanism in concert with the Strategic Force Generation and Capability Planning Cell and a range of Member States, which will match training needs with training offers. That is why we were very pleased to co-host the preparatory meeting on training and capacity-building with Uruguay ahead of this year’s Peacekeeping Ministerial. For our part, we will continue our efforts to better align our training and capacity-building efforts with the needs of our partners. The United Kingdom trains some 11,000 peacekeepers from around the world each year. We were proud to work with Viet Nam ahead of their first contingent deployment to South Sudan in 2018. We supported Viet Nam’s efforts to train and prepare its peacekeepers to take over the level-II field hospital at Bentiu. In conclusion, the men, women and children who we ask our peacekeepers to protect should be able to trust that anyone in a blue helmet or a blue beret is ready, willing and able to deliver and, as necessary, defend the mandates set by the Council. Moreover, our peacekeepers should be able to trust that, before they are sent into some of the world’s most difficult conflicts, they will be trained and equipped to the highest possible standard. The United Kingdom remains committed to meeting those standards in our own deployments and to partnering with other Member States to help them achieve those goals.

I should like to join others in welcoming you, Madam President. I think your presence here underlines the importance that your country attaches to peacekeeping, something that has also been demonstrated through the concept note (S/2019/359, annex), on which I would like to congratulate you. You have also underlined the importance you attach to this issue. Let me make five points. First, Germany is committed to peacekeeping. We are the fourth largest financial contributor to peacekeeping and German peacekeepers are currently deployed in nine missions. We train, prepare and equip our peacekeepers to meet the required standards. The Secretary-General noted in his intervention this morning that training saves lives. We share that view and in 2018 Germany conducted a military observer course for female peacekeepers for the first time. This year, we will conduct a course for United Nations police commanders in Germany and our Center for International Peace Operations in Berlin provides training for civilian experts. At the Peacekeeping Ministerial held at the end of March, Foreign Minister Maas made three commitments: Germany will send mobile predeployment training teams, it will train staff officers on mission and it will support international peacekeeping training centres such as those in Ghana and Mali. I would also like to echo what you, Madam President, said with regard to female peacekeepers, to the effect that investing in women is investing in peace. Women are still underrepresented and several colleagues who spoke before me have said that the effectiveness of peacekeeping missions is strengthened by the presence of more women peacekeepers. We should therefore work on that. We will support the Elsie Initiative on Women in Peace Operations mentioned by Mr. Holmberg and, as Defence Minister Von der Leyen has stated to the Security Council (see S/PV.8508), we know that such work begins at home and we are committed to reaching similar targets in Germany. Secondly, we must protect those whose work is to provide security. We have more than 100,000 peacekeepers in the field putting their lives on the line and our British colleague has just reminded us of the ceremony yesterday at which we paid tribute to the more than 100 peacekeepers who have lost their lives on mission. Germany will supply concrete support, including by providing United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali contingents with protective vests. Much more needs to be done to provide adequate support to peacekeepers. They need adequate intelligence on the ground, they need more information and they need to able to analyse the information they obtain in order to improve their performance. Thirdly, peacekeepers serve the most vulnerable populations and should lead by example. Therefore, it is key that they receive training in human rights law and international humanitarian law and training in the protection of children. In that regard, I would like to commend the Force Commander the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), who gave some very specific examples in his presentation of how the Mission has taken action successfully to protect children. Fourthly, with regard to training to prevent sexual and gender-based violence, exactly two weeks ago, we heard from Dr. Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who knows first-hand the meaning of sexual violence in conflict. Germany was very happy that the Council was able to adopt resolution 2467 (2019), which asks for peacekeepers to be provided with training on sexual and gender-based violence as part of their predeployment and mission training. Fifthly and finally, peacekeeping should be embedded in a political strategy. I would like to recall what was said very clearly by the Force Commander of MONUSCO  — solutions to conflicts are political. Peacekeeping missions can support political processes but cannot resolve conflicts by themselves. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire we found a solution to the conflict, but in South Sudan we continue to struggle. The Security Council should promote coherent political strategies for the crisis situations on our agenda that include exit strategies, realistic political objectives and strategic benchmarks. We should adopt timelines and decide on the size of contingents according to a strategy and not the other way around.

At the outset, Madam President, I would like to warmly welcome your presence among us today. Your participation in the Council underlines the importance of the matters discussed, especially for Indonesia. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General and the two briefers, Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho, Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat, for their informative and valuable contributions. I would like to touch upon three main topics: the significance of the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in the area of training and capacity-building; the importance of information-sharing as an enabler of better performance; and the crucial role of well-crafted predeployment training. As one of the first Member States to endorse the Declaration of Shared Commitments, Poland sees it as a clear road map for all relevant stakeholders to guide them in continuously enhancing United Nations peacekeeping missions, including by providing support for the preparation of the personnel and capabilities required for effective performance and mandate delivery. Poland strongly believes in providing troop and police units with customized predeployment training and adequately adjusted equipment. We therefore fully support collective action to improve United Nations peacekeeping, including through triangular partnerships and a light coordination mechanism. In that regard, we welcome the outcome of the Peacekeeping Ministerial held in March 2019, which led to substantive progress on relevant commitments and training-specific pledges by Member States. None of this, however, should undermine or replace the general principle that the predeployment training of peacekeepers is the primary responsibility of troop- contributing and police-contributing countries. I would like to reiterate our strong support for the requirement provided in the Declaration of Shared Commitments that the participation of women at all stages of the peace process should be full, equal and meaningful. The same applies to the challenges and opportunities of training and capacity-building. Poland believes that it is only by ensuring the fair and equal access of women peacekeepers to training and development opportunities that we will achieve the ambitious goals of the uniformed gender-parity strategy. Effective and efficient performance culture in peacekeeping missions requires, among other things, information-sharing capabilities. We recognize information and data-driven analysis as key entry points to enhanced peacekeeping. Better situational awareness, including country-specific information provided by local communities, improves planning and allows the identification of clear and achievable benchmarks. Subsequently, realistic plans precisely guide troop-contributing countries in their predeployment training activities. This chain reaction regarding information management leads us all to the effective implementation of the mandate and is indispensable to a mission’s ultimate goal, which is to protect civilians and United Nations personnel. Such mission-specific preparations are possible only when troop-contributing countries are provided with the full operational, political, geographical and security picture. We deem indispensable closer cooperation between United Nations Headquarters and missions in that regard. I would like to conclude by expressing our strong belief that insufficient and ineffective training of peacekeepers directly affects mandate implementation  — the core and statutory objective of the United Nations presence in the host countries. There can be no proper response without the proper preparation process. Peacekeepers’ training cycles should equip the Blue Helmets with a clear vision of a given mission’s priorities, with the overarching aim of protecting the most vulnerable.

We warmly welcome Her Excellency Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia. We align our statement to that to be delivered later by Ms. Fatima Kyari Mohammed, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations. I thank the presidency of Indonesia for having organized this very timely high-level open debate. I thank also the Secretary-General and the two briefers, Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho and Mr. Björn Holmberg, for their edifying briefings. Equatorial Guinea believes that moving towards and investing in stable and lasting peace requires that important social and institutional transformations take place in a State. Decisive action is required that guarantees the rights of each citizen; communities must be responsible as concerns the rights and duties of their peoples; and relationships among social, public and private stakeholders must be based on justice, transparency, citizen security, equity, care for the environment, and respect for difference and social dialogue. Equatorial Guinea believes that however we may live and interrelate, peacekeeping is the responsibility of each one of us within our respective societies. Success in this area will require new skills and capacities, through the contributions of all States Members of the United Nations, and international, regional, subregional and social organizations and institutions  — in short, cooperation among all States. Peacebuilding must be seen as something that goes beyond just ending war. Peacebuilding requires actions aimed at tackling learnt prejudices, developing empathy for others, promoting a change in mentality that opens the way to new relationships in which violence and force are not ways of achieving results and resolving conflicts, and this must be done through dialogue and in a peaceful way. In order to achieve this complex set of actions, society, as a whole and at the international level, must bring to bear its full potential, deploy its full capacities and create connections so that it can transform itself as a society, including by seeking strategies that will allow it to enhance well-being and respect for human dignity and guarantee human rights, justice and equity. Improving the security and the performance of United Nations peacekeeping personnel undoubtedly means including, valuing and implementing in practice all the aspects contained in the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, presented by the Secretary-General on 25 December 2018, during the seventy-third session of the General Assembly. The same is true of all the other strategies set out during the recent high- level Peacekeeping Ministerial on the Action for Peacekeeping initiative (see S/PV.8508), at which the following main objectives were established: generating specialized high-performance capacities for the United Nations regarding peacekeeping so as to meet ever- changing needs and tackle new challenges, in particular increasing capacities for rapid deployment and the training of units that speak the local language, and strengthening compliance with standards of training and performance, including in addressing security and protection issues. Additional objectives are revitalizing political determination and networks to support the United Nations in its efforts to reform and further galvanize support for Member States so as to enable them to meet their financing commitments for the effective implementation of action for peacekeeping; and undertaking substantial reforms to improve the functional structure of peacekeeping operations, making them more coherent, agile and effective. My delegation welcomes the fact that the Action for Peacekeeping initiative represents the main agenda and is an agent of change that affects all aspects of the laudable work done by United Nations peacekeepers and strengthens missions charged with maintaining international peace and security, thanks to the impetus to collective action by peacekeeping personnel from all Member States as well as the Security Council, the General Assembly, financial contributors, troop- and police-contributing countries, host countries, intergovernmental and regional organizations and the Secretariat. In that regard, further efforts are necessary to devise and adopt mechanisms aimed at putting into practice, according to our shared, mutually-agreed- on commitments, all the objectives listed as areas for improvement pursuant to the Action for Peacekeeping initiative and in line with the shared road map. Allow me to conclude with an observation: it is imperative for international peace and security that the African Union be endowed with the resources necessary to fulfil its subsidiary responsibility under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. This requires sustainable and predictable financing of the peacekeeping operations carried out by the African Union under a Security Council mandate, and also that the troops undertaking these missions be provided with the necessary training, capacities and equipment. This is an issue of logic and justice that is key to achieving our shared goal of silencing the guns in Africa and across the world. We conclude by paying well-deserved tribute to the laudable contribution made by Indonesia to peacekeeping operations.

We would like to welcome you to the Security Council, Madam President, and to thank you for organizing today’s debate on issues related to the training of peacekeepers and building the capacity of United Nations peacekeeping operations. We are also grateful to Secretary-General António Guterres and the other briefers for their informative statements. We share the concerns about the fact that today’s challenges demand particularly thorough training of peacekeeping contingents. That is especially important in missions with complex mandates operating in extremely difficult and dangerous situations. High- quality training for personnel plays a decisive role in the process of putting together modern multicomponent peacekeeping missions, and the effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping is directly dependent on it. The issue of personnel training cannot be resolved by the United Nations on its own. The main responsibility lies with the States themselves. We know that from experience. Russian men and women peacekeepers are serving in eight United Nations peacekeeping operations, and we take an active part in providing aviation services for United Nations needs. We have therefore gained significant experience in issues related to training peacekeeping personnel. We train foreign peacekeepers as well as our own — police, formed units and military observers — in Russian training centres. We have developed an instruction system that includes both general and specialized training just prior to peacekeepers’ deployment to specific missions. We also adapt language training to what is needed. We believe firmly in the need for robust triangular cooperation and the coordination of efforts on training and capacity-building issues between the Security Council, the troop-contributing countries and the Secretariat. However, direct contact between States that are developing training programmes and those taking part in them is no less important. In general, we hope that the institutionalization of the light coordination mechanism and linking intergovernmental cooperation to the work of the Secretariat will not create additional obstacles or lead to unnecessary competition between States providing training programmes, and that it will lead to a better awareness among troop-contributing countries about the training programmes available to them. Of course, it is extremely important to take into account modern realities and needs. We have to understand what kind of peacekeepers are needed today and the areas where training is most relevant. It is essential to take into account the views and concerns of troop-contributing countries. It is their Blue Helmets and Blue Berets who understand better than anyone the kinds of tasks that have to be dealt with on the ground and the skills that are needed for them. We also want to point out that peacekeepers’ effectiveness and security certainly does not depend only on how well their training went. The way the Security Council formulates their missions’ mandates is no less important. In fact, that may be the most crucial stage, where we ensure that the tasks are commensurate with peacekeeping capabilities. In that regard, we continue to be alarmed by the excessive enthusiasm for so-called robust mandates. We should not forget that among other things, the right to use force increases security risks for Blue Helmets themselves, turning them into targets and even parties to conflicts. That cannot be allowed to happen. Peacekeeping’s job is maintaining peace, not creating new risks. I want to remind the Council that this became one of the key issues during the discussion of the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, especially at the stage when the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations was being drafted. It is no secret that despite the broad support for such initiatives, States still disagree about a number of very important aspects. In September of last year Russia circulated an official note as a Security Council document in which we explained that we could not support the linking of human rights issues to the protection of civilians, since the latter involves the use of force based on Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. Needless to say there can be no question of monitoring human rights with the use of force. We also stressed that United Nations peacekeeping missions’ activity should prioritize working with host Governments. Lastly, we maintained, and continue to maintain, that the Special Committee on Peacekeeping should play a key role alongside the Security Council in defining the parameters for United Nations peacekeeping. At the time, we thought that a common understanding had been reached between the States Members of the United Nations and the Secretariat that it was essential to continue working to establish a consensus on general peacekeeping issues. Unfortunately, however, we are still encountering attempts to circumvent the Special Committee on Peacekeeping in order to push issues through the Security Council that have failed to reach agreement in the General Assembly. Needless to say, we cannot accept that approach. However, we are definitely not denying the significance of the Secretary-General’s initiatives on very concrete issues of peacekeeping. That applies first and foremost to the training and capacity-building of peacekeepers. In this area we should act collectively to find appropriate and balanced solutions. We were pleased to see that it is precisely such balanced approaches that are reflected in the presidential statement issued today (S/PRST/2019/4). There is no hiding the fact that the drafting of the statement was not easy. Some delegations refused to be actively involved until the very last round. However, we salute the efforts of the Indonesian delegation, whose extreme diplomatic skill ultimately made it possible to achieve a result that satisfied everyone. We believe we should continue to work on developing United Nations peacekeeping on the basis of consensus, listening carefully and respecting one another, which is the only approach that will make it possible to fully realize the Secretary-General’s ambitious goals for the field of peacekeeping.

We welcome you as President of the Security Council today, Madam, and South Africa would like to thank the Republic of Indonesia for organizing this open debate on an important matter. We also thank the Secretary-General, Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho, Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), and Mr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat, for their comprehensive briefings. South Africa aligns itself with the statements to be delivered by the representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, and by the observer of the African Union (AU). My delegation recognizes and reaffirms the importance of peacekeeping as one of the most effective tools available to the United Nations in the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security, as well as in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts. As the body entrusted with the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping operations and in the context of new emerging threats faced by our troops and United Nations personnel, the Security Council must ensure that operations are fully resourced, entrusted with the appropriate mandate to respond to the context-specific environment in which they are deployed and adequately equipped with troops that are able to protect themselves in the process of carrying out their mandates. In our view, the safety and security of the peacekeepers should also be strengthened by adopting the use of modern technology in peacekeeping operations. The United Nations should use smart technology and heightened key capabilities to enable peacekeepers to counter any attack by armed groups or other forms of the asymmetrical threats that are increasingly prevalent in peacekeeping. South Africa reaffirms the primacy of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C-34) in making United Nations peacekeeping policy. We regret the fact that the substantive session of the C-34 that concluded in March was unable to adopt its annual report. We urge all Member States to work together to reach consensus on issues that are pertinent to the discharge of the Council’s mandate. The C-34’s chapters on the enhancement of African peacekeeping capacities and best-practices training are relevant to our discussion today. South Africa acknowledges the increased and vital role that regional organizations play in peacemaking and peacekeeping efforts. Regional organizations such as the African Union are first responders, deploying early where necessary in order to stabilize crisis situations and thereby enabling the United Nations to deploy when conditions are more favourable. As is envisaged in Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, partnerships with regional organizations will therefore address some of the constraints that the United Nations faces in implementing successful peace operations. It is our firm view that the efforts of regional organizations are indispensable, and there is merit in having the United Nations develop and strengthen their capacities. South Africa would like to reiterate the importance of enhancing the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of the financing for AU-led peace support operations authorized by the Security Council. That principle has been endorsed by the Council and we must continue to support it. We must also ensure the availability of the necessary training and capacity required to increase the number of women in peacekeeping operations. South Africa will therefore continue supporting efforts aimed at advancing women’s meaningful representation and participation in peacekeeping missions, such as the opportunities presented by the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations, of which we are a member. Programmes aimed at female military officers have been undertaken in partnership with UN-Women and the Government of Norway, with the assistance of the Department of Political Affairs and the African Union. South Africa is fully committed to the zero- tolerance policy on sexual exploitation in peacekeeping operations. We have deployed a comprehensive, institutionalized predeployment programme on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse in order to raise the level of consciousness of that scourge among our deployed troops. We are also providing continuing additional in-mission training interventions to reinvigorate troops’ situational awareness and mission readiness in terms of command-and-control matters, the use of leisure time, the protection of civilians, human rights standards and, once again, sexual exploitation and abuse. We are a member of the Secretary-General’s Circle of Leadership on the prevention of and response to sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations operations, and we fully endorse it. In operationalizing Action for Peacekeeping, enhancing partnerships and strengthening performance, South Africa is sharing its expertise and training competencies with the Force Intervention Brigade partners in MONUSCO. The tactical intelligence unit course presented for six weeks in South Africa for our own troops, as well as those from Tanzania and Malawi, as preparation for predeployment to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a case in point, aimed at ensuring a common operational picture and solidifying operational effectiveness. In conclusion, and in reply to the questions in the concept note for this debate (S/2019/359, annex), South Africa would like to make the following recommendations. With regard to predeployment verification, we propose that the United Nations consider establishing technical training teams that will provide workshops for the peacekeeping training institutions of the troop-contributing countries (TCCs) and police-contributing countries (PCCs) to assist them in translating United Nations doctrine with a view to improving field training, as well as identifying and correcting capacity gaps, during the preparation of forces prior to deployment. Furthermore, TCCs and PCCs must analyse the scope of intervention operations as they relate to the security landscape in the theatre of conflict. That will help guide the development of scenarios for military units and form a baseline for mission-specific training according to the real-time situations that military units are deployed to. The Secretariat should further expand the reach and number of United Nations peacekeeping training centres on the African continent, as well as in other regions, which would supplement the activities of both the Member States and the United Nations in building peacekeepers’ capacities and training them. Lastly, consideration should be given to standardizing the peacekeeping doctrine between the United Nations and regional peacekeeping training institutions, with a view to developing a common doctrine on peacekeeping. We believe that these recommendations can contribute to improving the training and capacity needs of our peacekeepers.

We welcome the convening of this meeting and your presence here today in presiding over our meeting, Madam President. We thank the Secretary-General and the briefers for their valuable statements. We believe it is essential for troop- and police-contributing countries to participate actively in the institutional reforms and changes aimed at making peacekeeping operations more efficient, just as we believe that it is the Security Council’s job to provide the troops participating in those operations with clear and precise mandates. We believe that for this analysis to be productive it is essential to diagnose the many challenges and difficulties currently facing peace operations. The troops deployed to missions are operating in increasingly hostile environments and dealing with many different kinds of non-State actors, including insurgent groups, terrorists and organized criminals, which makes their work extremely complex and risky. They must therefore be given the specialized training they need to enable them to carry out their mandates successfully. In that regard we note with concern the frequent attacks on Blue Helmets, and we pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in the execution of their duties. This difficult scenario requires an adequate response from States in terms of training, and that means going beyond a model of general preparation towards a more specialized one that takes into account the specific characteristics of the environment where the personnel will be deployed and the specific tasks that the Council will require of them. In our view it is also crucial to provide training in a number of other areas. They include the specifics of mandates and the tasks to be implemented on the ground, which means that the Council’s resolutions should establish clear mandates and achievable objectives in operational terms; individual missions’ specific tasks, such as the protection of civilians and the protection of critical infrastructure, strategies for ex-combatants’ disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, security-sector reform and demining operations; international humanitarian law and human rights, with a particular focus on combating sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeeping personnel, who must sign and implement the voluntary compact on preventing and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse; capacity-building and integration projects in host societies, with a view to building relationships of respect and trust with the people; the use of new and appropriate technologies, which can contribute substantially to peacekeepers’ security and fulfilment of their mandates, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians; and, lastly, a strengthened focus on gender. As co-Chair of the Informal Expert Group on Women and Peace and Security, we recognize the importance of raising the awareness of uniformed personnel with regard to the special protection and empowerment needs of women in conflict and post- conflict situations. In achieving those objectives, we believe it is useful to share the important synergies that exist in Latin America. They are not limited to bilateral relations, through exchanges of officials and instructors or lessons learned on doctrine and course design, but are in fact multilateral, thanks to the creation of ALCOPAZ, our Latin American association of peace operations training centres, which is aimed at mutual integration and cooperation. It is currently chaired by Peru and continues to strengthen its links and capacity in various technical areas. We believe that similar approaches could be applied to police and civilian involvement in peace operations. We also consider it important to link such efforts with the experience of other continents in order to generate synergies of greater scope. In addition, we believe that it is crucial to complement those positive practices with the involvement of civil society organizations, such as research centres, think tanks and universities, with which partnerships and cooperation agreements should be developed. In conclusion, I would like to recall that, as the Minister for Defence of Peru announced at the Peacekeeping Ministerial held on 29 March, Peru will host the twenty-fifth Annual Conference of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres, to be held in October. We call on all countries that have training centres to continue to contribute to the strengthening of those key capacities and the joint task of investing in peace.

At the outset, I would like to thank Indonesia for bringing up this important aspect of peacekeeping for discussion in the Security Council. Incident reports have demonstrated the extent to which training and related issues are key to the responses that must be provided. The statement made by the Secretary-General earlier also illustrated the importance of this issue for the Secretariat. The Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative is the matrix on which we must base our work. I would like to address three points: first, the primary responsibility of troop- and police-contributing countries for training their contingents; secondly, the importance of pursuing such training through specific and needs-based initiatives; and, thirdly, the importance of adequately training contingents on the specific issue of children in armed conflict. The primary responsibility for training uniformed personnel deployed in peace operations lies with troop- and police-contributing countries. In that regard, it is important for the Secretariat to ensure that contingents are operational following predeployment training. Before taking up their posts in a given peacekeeping operation, Blue Helmets and police officers should be operationally prepared and fully aware of the reality that they must face. In addition to general mandatory training, the specific content of the training package should be determined by the person who knows best what is needed, namely, the Force Commander. Belgium supports the Secretariat, in particular the Integrated Training Service, in its mission to provide troop-contributors with comprehensive and up-to-date training material. In particular, Belgium assists in translating training manuals into French, as it is aware of the importance of conducting training in the language of the contingent or of the duty station. Secondly, with regard to training and related issues on the ground in the theatre of operations, uniformed and non-uniformed personnel should receive theatre-specific information and, where appropriate, should participate in exercises that will enable them to carry out their specific mission more effectively. One post-deployment training tool for continuing training is the use of mobile training teams, which the Secretary-General mentioned earlier. Belgium is currently providing such teams to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali for four six-week periods in order to deliver targeted needs-based training, including primary emergency assistance. The partnership involves the Secretariat, the country providing instructors and the troop-contributing countries, in close cooperation with the Mission. We are counting on the Secretariat to quickly facilitate the operationalization of a light coordination mechanism. Thirdly, for a soldier, even one who has operational experience, facing an armed child can be overwhelming. In an ideal world, we should not have to train our contingents how to react when confronted by a child. Unfortunately, the situation on the ground is sometimes very far removed from our ideals, and the reality is that some unscrupulous groups continue to arm children. More generally, given the many different situations they have to deal with, the members of peace operations must be made aware of child-protection measures. As mandated by resolution 1612 (2005) and related resolutions, including resolution 2387 (2017), it is important that mission personnel receive sufficient training in that area. I would like to take this opportunity to commend Lieutenant General Martins Filho on the efforts of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the results achieved in that area, which the Force Commander mentioned earlier. In conclusion, Belgium will remain committed to the continuous process of improving the performance of peace operations.

First of all, I would like to thank the Indonesian presidency of the Security Council for holding this important open debate, which focuses on an element that is key to ensuring the success of peacekeeping operations. I would also like to especially welcome the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, whose participation in presiding over this open debate illustrates Indonesia’s determined commitment to the topic that has brought us together today. I also convey my sincere thanks to the Secretary- General, the Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mr. Björn Holmberg for their valuable contributions. We can never stress enough how much we need Blue Helmets who are well-trained, well-equipped and fully aware of the mandate they have to deliver in order to optimize the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations. In Mali, for example, adequate equipment would have prevented the deaths of several Blue Helmets, and the ongoing improvement of the quality of equipment is therefore a top priority. In many theatres of operation, better predeployment training of staff officers is needed. More generally, increased interoperability among those staff officers would allow them to mount a more effective response to threats against civilians and would strengthen the security of the peacekeepers themselves. In addition to military and police personnel, all peacekeeping personnel must be trained, in particular the mission leadership. Today’s peacekeeping operations are complex and multidimensional and require the integration of the work carried out by civilian and military components. In post-crisis countries in which State authority must be restored, such close cooperation should extend to the United Nations country teams and bilateral and multilateral partners. It is therefore a new ecosystem in which peacekeeping operations function, and they must adapt to it. Training is a crucial element in achieving that. Significant progress has been made in recent years. The Peacekeeping Ministerial held on 29 March, attended by the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, demonstrated that Member States are ready to make the necessary efforts to strengthen future peacekeeping operations. Most of us made robust commitments last September by subscribing to the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, under the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. France will continue to lend its full support to the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, which has already been a significant success for the United Nations and the Secretary-General. Training is above all the national responsibility of all of us as troop-contributing countries, and we must collectively make the necessary efforts in that regard. France wishes to do its part and, in addition to training its own troops, is making a significant effort to support other troop-contributing countries in the training of their contingents. We must now work to implement the Declaration of Commitments as quickly and completely as possible. The failure of the negotiations of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations must not stop us. We must continue the momentum of mobilization around the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. We must make the most of the meeting of the heads of general staff in July and the conference on peacekeeping in a French- speaking environment, to be held in the fall in Morocco, to make steadfast progress in that regard. Moreover, the launch and development of the light coordination mechanism for the purpose of deconfliction deserves our full attention. The mechanism should enable the Secretariat to be fully informed of the various training activities carried out by States for troop- contributing countries. In the Security Council, France is already implementing its peacekeeping commitments. For mandates in which we are penholders, we strive to be exemplary with a view to setting in motion a positive dynamic. We have already put many of those commitments into practice. We systematically consult troop-contributing countries throughout the year, and not only at the time of mandate renewal; we organize field evaluation visits before each renewal; we consult the host State; and we work to prioritize mandates, where possible. On the issue of training and capacity-building, France is especially committed in the area of training French-speaking troop-contributing countries. France supports six peacekeeping operation training centres in Africa, three in Latin America and one in Asia, which contribute to building the capacity of future contingents deployed in peacekeeping operations. We are also strengthening the skills of those contingents in specialized areas, such as mine clearance, health, judicial police, logistics and civil protection, thanks to our network of national and regional schools and our network of 320 experts working as closely as possible with the defence and security forces of many countries. Through those different activities, we are committed to training more than 30,000 African military personnel next year to qualify them to serve in peacekeeping operations. That is a considerable effort with real operational significance. We also emphasize so-called refresher courses during missions to ensure follow-up to training provided previously. France has just conducted a trial exercise with a mobile training team for the Guinean battalion of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. Lastly, for the fifth consecutive year, and in coordination with the Department of Peace Operations, France will organize a training session for United Nations trainers in Paris for approximately 40 French- speaking staff officers. I would also like to highlight the crucial importance of multilingualism, which is not only in the United Nations DNA but is also necessary for the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations. It is essential for Blue Helmets to speak the language of the country in which they are deployed, as it enables them to be in close contact with local populations and authorities, which is one of the conditions for successful peacekeeping. That is why we provide special support for teaching French to future contingents through the En Avant method, which offers a method of learning French that is adapted to the peacekeeping environment. We also organize French language courses for 7,500 trainees per year and provide translations of reference documents. In that context, France, in association with the International Organization of la Francophonie, published a practical guide in French in March, entitled “Etre acteur des opérations de paix”, which the French Minister of the Armed Forces co-presented here in New York. It is an important educational tool designed to promote the presence of Francophone contingents in peacekeeping operations. I would like to conclude by underlining the extent to which the protection, participation and empowerment of women are at the heart of France’s priorities in all areas of peacekeeping operations. France today ranks fourth in the world for women’s participation in the armed forces. The personnel of all our current military operations, both nationally and in peacekeeping operations, are at least 7 per cent female  — and, of course, we would like to take that commitment further. That is why the Minister of the Armed Forces, Ms. Florence Parly, launched a new gender parity plan in March within the armed forces to encourage the participation of women and fully value their role, and in particular to double the number of women general officers by 2025. I again thank you, Madam President, for presiding over this debate.

At the outset, I would like to thank Indonesia for its initiative in convening today’s open debate during its presidency of the Security Council for this month. I also welcome your coming to New York, Madam Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, to preside over this meeting. My thanks also go to Secretary-General Guterres, Lieutenant General Martins Filho and Mr. Holmberg for their briefings. Since their inception, more than 70 years ago, United Nations peacekeeping operations have made important contributions to the maintenance of international peace and security. Over the past year, Secretary- General Guterres has been actively advancing the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. United Nations Member States, the Secretariat and relevant regional organizations have made shared commitments, and those efforts have given new impetus to bolstering and improving United Nations peacekeeping operations. Training and capacity-building are crucial to enhancing peacekeeping operations and have a direct bearing onthe effectiveness of the implementation of Security Council mandates. As such, they merit the full attention of Council members. China supports presidential statement S/PRST/2019/4, which was adopted today at Indonesia’s initiative. I would like to make the following comments. First, we must prioritize capacity-building for troop-contributing countries (TCCs). TCCs are the major actors of peace operations and make important contributions to peacekeeping operations, and in doing so their troops sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice. The international community should pay attention to the actual needs of TCCs, in particular those from developing countries, enhance tcapacity-building in the area of peacekeeping and ensure the availability of targeted training and resources. Thorough and effective training and capacity-building should be conducted to continue improving the safety, security and performance of peacekeepers. Secondly, it is important to fully leverage the role of the Secretariat. The Secretariat should continue improving training policies for peacekeeping and provide updated training materials in a timely manner. It is necessary to carry out targeted training during deployment in the light of the situation in the task areas targeted in mission training. Based on its own advantages, the Secretariat can play a coordinating role between supply and demand in the area of peacekeeping capacity-building. Thirdly, it is essential to actively build partnerships for peacekeeping capacity-building. Bilateral, regional and international cooperation must be conducted in peacekeeping capacity-building. Support must be given to the African Union (AU), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other regional organizations in their efforts to enhance their regional peacekeeping capacity. It is imperative to prioritize and support the significant role of the AU and other regional and subregional organizations in maintaining peace and security in Africa and to assist the AU in its efforts for the early operationalization of the African Standby Force and Rapid Reaction Force. China, a permanent member of the Security Council, is a major troop-contributing country (TCC) and financial contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations. It is a staunch supporter of and major participant in such operations. At present, more than 2,500 Chinese peacekeepers are implementing mandates in eight task areas, working in fields such as demining, medical services, engineering, transportation and security. China attaches great importance to the training and capacity-building of peacekeepers. Chinese peacekeepers are well-trained, well-equipped and disciplined. The Peacekeeping Centre of the Chinese Ministry of Defence and the Chinese Peacekeeping Police Training Centre provide high-quality predeployment training for Chinese peacekeepers. China fully implements the commitments made by President Xi Jinping in further supporting United Nations peacekeeping operations. A peacekeeping standby force of more than 8,000 troops and two peacekeeping standby police contingents have been established and have all passed United Nations assessments and completed registration in the United Nations Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System. They can be put into operation at any time. In addition to our efforts, China has also been actively helping police-contributing countries that are developing countries in their capacity-building since 2015, through international workshops on peacekeeping, and by sending experts and trainers abroad to conduct training. China has helped other countries train more than 1,800 peacekeepers and has assisted countries in South- East Asia in training more than 200 mine-clearance personnel. China will continue to work actively on providing the AU with gratis military assistance worth $100 million and additional training worth $80 million to help Africa advance its African Standby Force and Rapid Reaction Force. It will continue to support Africa in its efforts to enhance its own peacekeeping capacity. Since its inception, the China-United Nations Peace and Development Trust Fund has made peacekeeping capacity-building a priority. Since 2016, the Fund has supported more than 10 peacekeeping capacity- building projects, including training for formed police units, first aid and research on the safety and security of peacekeepers. The Fund gives priority to funding the peacekeeping capacity-building projects of African TCCs. In 2018, eight training sessions were conducted, benefiting more than 200 trainees. In 2019, the number of training sessions will be increased to 15. Last but not least, China wishes to reiterate that it will continue to contribute to United Nations peacekeeping capacity-building and honour its commitment to world peace with concrete actions.

I congratulate you, Madam President, on Indonesia’s Security Council presidency this month. I also thank our briefers and Indonesia for organizing today’s debate on how training and capacity-building can strengthen United Nations peacekeeping. In that regard, the United States is engaging with partners to provide innovative approaches to improving peacekeeping. We know that high-quality training and accountability can directly contribute to the safety and security of uniformed peacekeepers. Just as importantly, qualified professional troops and police can deliver more effective and efficient missions that better protect civilian populations. Uniformed personnel must also have an understanding of the mandate, the background and the conditions of their peacekeeping environment. There are many troop- and police-contributing countries that may have the political will to help peacekeeping operations achieve lasting solutions and seek partnerships to fulfil their peacekeeping potential. That is where the United States excels. We will continue to answer the call to help, as the largest bilateral training and capacity-building partner in the world. Our commitment to the effective development and delivery of peacekeeping training and capacity- building is long-standing and our efforts are working. Police trained in conjunction with the United States regularly pass United Nations predeployment assessments and United States-trained Rwandan police units in both the United Nations Mission in South Sudan and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic received United Nations medals of service excellence in recognition of their leadership and efforts to protect civilians — qualities we should demand from all deployed uniformed personnel. On the military side, we are working with a partner troop-contributing country to pilot a predeployment certification exercise to validate the readiness of deploying battalions. Through our peacekeeping initiatives, the United States does more than conduct training courses. Our long-term partnerships help enable troop- and police-contributing partners to prepare, deploy and sustain fit for purpose peacekeepers. We hope that other training and capacity-building partners will follow suit. Our assistance activities further aim to address mission shortfalls that might undermine the performance or effectiveness of a peacekeeping operation. For example, we have provided training and equipment to 41 partner countries to develop 82 distinct critical enabling capabilities — such as engineering companies, level-2 hospitals and riverine units — for deployment to peacekeeping operations. Our training also aims to increase the number of qualified civilian and uniformed women in peacekeeping. More than 11,000 female military and police personnel have participated in United States peacekeeping training events, through the United States Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) and the International Police Peacekeeping Operations Support Programme. As part of our efforts to achieve the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all stages of the peace process, we have further integrated gender-related topics into training for all peacekeepers. In GPOI partner countries, we are investing in infrastructure, such as building female barracks and latrines, to accommodate female peacekeepers at training sites. We do those things because we know, as you pointed out, Madam President, that having qualified women in meaningful roles makes peacekeeping missions more effective. However, safety and security are not just about training and capacity-building. They str primarily about improving peacekeeper performance. That is why we drafted resolution 2436 (2018), adopted by consensus last September, and why we welcome the Secretary-General’s commitment to implementing an integrated performance policy. Resolution 2436 (2018) makes it clear that the Security Council needs better information on performance in order to make better decisions. From training and capacity-building to ensuring accountability for underperformance, we cannot fix what we do not know. As the representative of the United Kingdom also noted, better reporting on peacekeeping will help us make better decisions in the Council. We will therefore continue to work with partners towards the full and speedy implementation of resolution 2436 (2018). Through that effort, we will further strengthen peacekeeping, including with tailored, targeted training and capacity-building. In turn, that will enhance the safety and security of peacekeepers and the communities they protect so that we can arrive at lasting conditions for the political solutions that we seek.

I wish to remind all speakers to limit their statements to no more than four minutes in order to enable the Council to carry out its work expeditiously. Delegations with lengthy statements are kindly requested to circulate the text in writing and to deliver a condensed version when speaking in the Chamber. I wish to inform all concerned that we will continue today’s open debate right through the lunch hour, as we have a very large number of speakers. I now give the floor to the representative Ukraine.

I would like to join the participants in today’s discussion in expressing our sincere gratitude for the organization of this important debate. It is only fair that this meeting take place during the presidency of Indonesia — a nation with an outstanding peacekeeping record. I am about to deliver a statement in my national capacity; however, I would also like to signal that Ukraine aligns itself with the statement to be delivered by the observer of the European Union. I would like to express our gratitude to the Secretary-General and the briefers for their valuable input to the discussion. It is a particular pleasure for me to welcome the Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho. That Mission continues to be a decisive stabilization factor on the ground with the substantive support of Ukrainian attack and military transport helicopters. From the briefings it appears indisputable that, to keep up with an unpredictable world, the United Nations peacekeeping endeavour urgently requires additional reform. It is high time to assess the current state of play and prospects of United Nations peacekeeping. I sincerely hope that this debate will contribute to that vital exercise. We fully support the efforts of the Secretary- General to implement a robust, comprehensive United Nations reform agenda within the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. There are certainly palpable results achieved in the implementation of the September 2018 Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, which Ukraine also joined. However, we still have a long road before us to make contemporary and fully effective peacekeeping a reality. For Ukraine, as an active troop contributor and an initiator of the 1994 Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, the theme of our discussion has much practical meaning. Ukrainian Blue Helmets have been participating in United Nations operations throughout the world. In many cases, they have been instrumental in reaching peace — from the Balkans to Liberia. Ukraine’s involvement in United Nations peacekeeping did not cease even at the height of the ongoing armed aggression against my country, and even as Ukraine continues to await action from the Council on the deployment of a peacekeeping operation to the occupied territory in Ukrainian Donbas. Unfortunately, the casualty level in United Nations peacekeeping remains a grim reminder of the still unsatisfactory level of personnel safety and security. On the other hand, the action for protecting civilians as an integral part of the peacekeeping endeavour still lacks efficiency and determination. Both issues have often similar or closely interlinked causes, as was rightly outlined by the briefers. I see several essential issues to be addressed for success here. Ukraine proceeds from the understanding that the United Nations has to use all its potential to prevent the outbreak, resurgence and prolongation of armed conflicts. Gross human rights violations are often a precursor to the outbreak of a military conflict. Yet some Member States try very hard to prevent the United Nations and the Council from addressing human rights violations as an issue of international peace and security. The consequences of such irresponsibility can be seen in many places around the globe. Decisions on peacekeeping operation deployment should be based on a political solution or guided by peace agreements, which must include the protection of civilians. If an operation’s mandate has nothing to do with the implementation of peace accords, such a peacekeeping operation will not serve its main objective of establishing lasting peace and can result in the freezing, or even in the escalation, of the conflict. Any peacekeeping operation relies on appropriate force generation to be able to deliver on its mandate. One should not be deceived by a false belief in the ability of peacekeeping operations to function efficiently and effectively without proper funding and sufficient capabilities, including aviation assets, advanced intelligence and modern technologies. The Council should continue the dialogue with troop- and police-contributing countries in formal and informal consultations during the establishment or renewal of peacekeeping operation mandates, in order to ensure proper and on-time personnel training and equipment supply to the missions. Proper conduct by, and the discipline of all personnel deployed in, United Nations peacekeeping operations are vital to their effectiveness. The Council must continue to support the Secretary-General’s initiative to eradicate sexual violence in United Nations peacekeeping operations. It is essential also to ensure gender balance integration in peacekeeping operations, which would certainly further improve their capabilities to address gender- based violence, thereby contributing dramatically to conflict resolution. Ukraine has committed itself to the protection of civilians policy, including by recognizing the Kigali Principles, and views the issue of the protection of civilians as one of the most important tasks of peacekeeping operations. One of the practical ways for achieving improvement in that regard is by eliminating the practice of caveats, which often becomes an obstacle for a swift reaction by the United Nations. We also support the importance of protecting the environment in peacekeeping operations, which could make them a more effective instrument in curbing challenges on the ground. We welcome the ongoing implementation of the environmental performance and risk management framework in peacekeeping operations. It is now important to translate into action data collected from the framework in the course of peacekeeping operations. Our Organization has to move from traditional to cost-effective and smart peacekeeping, using all the necessary technologies and capabilities. As we approach the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations next year, we have to be prepared to give an honest assessment of the peacekeeping activities of the Organization. We must be prepared to assess all its achievements and gaps in the face of contemporary challenges in order to make our peace efforts stronger than ever before.

I now give the floor to the representative of Uruguay.

At the outset, allow me to thank the Indonesian presidency for organizing this debate. Your presence, Madam President, is a testament to the importance that your country attaches to the topic of peacekeeping operations. Similarly, I express our gratitude for the participation of, and the briefings given by, the Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, by the Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho, and by the Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat, Mr. Björn Holmberg. I wish today to reaffirm Uruguay’s commitment to the United Nations peacekeeping system and to peacekeeping operations. Our country has already deployed more than 45,000 troops in its long history as a troop and police contributor in more than 20 operations throughout the world. As of today, the contribution of Uruguayan troops positions my country as the largest contributor in the Americas, and very close to the top 20 contributors in the world. That effort, sustained over decades, has given our country a very rich experience in the field. My intervention will focus on three points. The first is the importance of training and capacity development. The second is the normative framework and the various United Nations documents and other initiatives in which Member States participate. The third point covers the concrete actions carried out by Uruguay in accordance with the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. First of all, Uruguay understands that the training and capacity-building of troops are critical factors for the effectiveness and efficiency of peacekeeping operations. We are at a time when peacekeeping operations must increasingly face highly challenging operational environments, in which complex and deteriorating political and security environments can be observed and in which complex asymmetrical threats are at play. At the same time, peacekeeping operations are being asked to do more and to do it better. Currently, many of the missions have the characteristic of being multidimensional, which means that they must carry out a variety of tasks and responsibilities, such as facilitating political processes, protecting civilians and humanitarian partners, contributing to institution building and promoting human rights. In that complex operational context, we have observed how any kind of deficiency in the areas of training, such as predeployment training, the selection of troops from contributing countries, the deployment of troops with declared — or even worse, undeclared — caveats, or equipment deficiencies, cannot only affect negatively the execution of the mandates and the performance of the missions, but can also increase the security risks for the peacekeeping personnel deployed. We believe, therefore, that effectively trained troops with sufficient capacity would be better equipped to fully implement the various aspects of a mandate, which would result in better performance and minimized security risks to deployed personnel. As a long-standing troop-contributing country, Uruguay attaches particular importance to the responsibilities of troop- and police-contributing countries, given that they are the ones acting on the ground and that they must implement a given mandate. We must also acknowledge that the effective implementation of peacekeeping mandates is also the responsibility of other actors concerned, including the Security Council and financial contributors, and that it depends on a number of key factors, in particular clearly defined and realistic mandates, political will, leadership, performance and accountability all levels and sufficient resources, inter alia. The key importance of training and capacity- building to improving peacekeeping operations is reflected, and here I turn to my second point, in the efforts that various United Nations bodies have made in this respect, be it in the form of resolutions, policies or other initiatives. Just as a brief overview, the Security Council adopted resolution 2436 (2018) last September, in which it reaffirmed its support for the development of a comprehensive, integrated performance policy framework to evaluate all United Nations uniformed personnel who provide support to peacekeeping operations and work therein. By the same token, through the Action for Peacekeeping initiative and the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, the main peacekeeping actors reaffirmed their collective commitment to peacekeeping operations and undertook to take action on various issues, including the training and capacity- building of peacekeeping personnel. For its part, the Special Committee for Peacekeeping Operations is continuing to consider these issues and to provide political guidelines in this area as well as specific recommendations to the Secretariat. The Fifth Committee, which has just begun its consideration of the peacekeeping operations budget, is responsible for providing to peacekeeping operations the resources necessary to fulfil their tasks. In this respect, we would express our concern at the trend of budget reductions that has been seen in recent years and at the possible negative impacts that this could have in the fulfilment of missions’ mandates, which could lead to shortcomings in their critical tasks, such as the protection of civilians. On my third and last point, I would like to highlight some specific actions that Uruguay has carried out in the field of training and capacity-building. Last December, my country, together with the United Kingdom, organized a preparatory meeting on training and capacity-building in Montevideo. Forty-two Member States participated in the meeting, which served as preparation for the United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial held on 25 March. At that conference, of which we had the honour of being co-host, my country offered training and capacity-building programmes in the area of the protection of civilians. Furthermore, in keeping with our efforts to increase the participation of female peacekeepers, Uruguay offered to contribute to the establishment of female task forces such as the one we will soon deploy as part of our contingent in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). In support of the efforts of the Department of Peace Operations in the area of training, Uruguay, with the backing of the United States, translated into Spanish a number of United Nations educational materials for the predeployment training of troops, which are now available to all Member States. Furthermore, Uruguay’s national school of peacekeeping continues to offer training courses on various topics. Yesterday in Montevideo, a training-of-trainers course on the protection of civilians began, supported by the Department of Peace Operations. The course will be held over several days and includes the participation of a large number of Member States, including the main troop-contributing countries. To conclude, and taking advantage of the presence of the MONUSCO Force Commander, I wish to emphasize the high operational level of the Uruguayan peacekeeping personnel deployed in the Mission. It includes rapid response; no caveats; loyalty to the Force Commander; and an unwavering commitment to the protection of civilians. It is with this mindset and great enthusiasm that we train our personnel prior to their deployment in peacekeeping operations.

I now give the floor to the representative of Canada.

I wish a Ramadan Mubarak to all who observe and celebrate this month of Ramadan. Germany brought light, and now Indonesia has brought beautiful colour, to the Council Chamber, so it is clear that we can count on the elected members to innovate. I thank them also for their leadership. I commend Indonesia for having convened today’s open debate and thank the briefers for their engaging presentations. In recent years the Council has expanded the mandates and tasks to be executed by peacekeeping operations. Guided by the need to protect vulnerable populations and secure a more sustainable peace, we are asking our deployed military, police and civilians to do more than ever before. At the same time, as today’s briefers have noted, peacekeeping operations have become more complex, multifaceted and dangerous. In order to go from strategic intent to practical effect, we need capabilities that are provided collectively by troop- and police-contributing countries. Delivering on these capabilities requires specialized training and capacity-building, because the tasks and the operational environment of United Nations peacekeeping are often unique. It is for this reason that’s today’s debate is so timely. Training needs to be specialized and context- specific. Where possible it should be scenario-based, providing concrete examples and practical guidance on how to respond to realities on the ground, and it should be carried out predeployment and in-theatre as needed. We recognize that training and capacity-building is inherently a work in progress, whether it is to maintain our edge, prepare successive rotations of peacekeepers or adapt strategies and tactics to the evolving nature of conflict. As noted in the report authored by former United Nations Force Commander Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, entitled “Improving security of United Nations peacekeepers”, training and capacity-building is also intimately linked to the safety and security of our peacekeepers. We should not compromise the safety and security of even a single United Nations peacekeeper as a result of a lack of adequate training. That is not a high bar; it is the only responsible way to deploy, for our troops and police and for the communities they serve. Furthermore, training and capacity-building is an essential component of peacekeeping performance. We simply cannot enhance performance without investing in knowledge and skills. In this regard, partnerships are essential. As troop and police contributors, we do not need to operate alone. We can work together, drawing on one another’s strengths and areas of expertise, and eliminating redundancies in our efforts. In this regard, Canada has provided $20 million in the past three years in direct support of identified United Nations training and professional development needs. Canada has also partnered with institutions such as the Ecole de maintien de la paix Alioune Blondin Beye de Bamako to deliver essential training to peacekeepers. More recently, we have worked in developing implementation guidance on the Vancouver Principles to help peacekeepers better deliver on their child-protection mandates. Training is required at all levels. Indeed, in addressing complex challenges, effective leadership is a prerequisite. That is why for the past three years we have supported the United Nations Senior Mission Leaders Course and taken steps to make that course more accessible to a wider and more diverse range of personnel. (spoke in French) Of course, what counts is not only how we train, but also whom we train. Experience and studies show that greater diversity leads to better results for peacekeeping operations by contributing broader perspectives, advantages, connections and varied forces. As we say in Canada, diversity is strength. Training and capacity-building should seek to increase diversity, not only by expanding the representation of all Member States in peacekeeping operations, but also by ensuring the full and effective participation of women at all levels of peace operations. As part of the Elsie Initiative on Women in Peace Operations, we have found that women do not have the same access to training opportunities that develop the basic skills for deployment. They face ostracism within the training cohorts, as well as the perception that they cannot do their job as well as men. We must ensure that women’s personnel in peacekeeping operations have equitable access to training and capacity-building, enabling them to be deployed and contribute to the success of missions. Because language skills are essential to understanding the local context of peacekeeping operations, our training and capacity-building efforts must also include a language component. That is particularly evident in the light of the high number of large missions deployed in Francophone environments. We therefore stress the importance of developing French-language training materials and offering French-language courses to Blue Helmets. In that regard, we commend Djibouti’s efforts to provide a French-language training course on strengthening the peacekeeping capacity of the countries of La Francophonie. This kind of leadership deserves our support. Finally, on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the protection of civilians mandate, we must remember that the failure to implement mandates can have catastrophic effects for regions, Member States, communities and the lives of those whom the peacekeepers are supposed to protect. The training of Blue Helmets is therefore vital in the true sense. We must therefore ensure that they have the necessary skills, training and equipment to carry out their protection mandate. In conclusion, the United Nations can count on Canada to be a partner in training and capacity-building, be it as Chair of the Working Group of the Whole of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, as the host of the next Challenges Forum in June in Montreal, or — as we all know — as a candidate for the Security Council in 2021-2122.

I now give the floor to the representative of Italy.

Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on assuming the presidency of the Security Council and on organizing this timely debate. I also join my Canadian friend in congratulating you on the elegance you have brought to the Council. I hope that it will bring new impetus to your work in the Council. Italy welcomes presidential statement S/PRST/2019/4, adopted today under Indonesia’s leadership, and joins the Council in recognizing the added value of the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in relation to training and capacity-building and in welcoming the efforts undertaken by the Secretary General through his Action for Peacekeeping initiative. I also thank today’s briefers for their contributions to the discussion. Italy aligns itself with the statement to be delivered by the observer of the European Union. I would like to add some remarks on my national capacity. United Nations peacekeeping Missions are still an essential instrument for global peace and security. Whenever they are effective in delivering their mandate, protecting civilians and contributing to lasting stability, our commitment to and investment in peace operations can be considered productive. This should encourage us to enhance our efforts. Training plays a critical role in guaranteeing the high level of effectiveness, efficiency and performance required of the Blue Helmets. Training and capacity- building activities should be viewed not as one-off activities, but rather as tools to enhance operational effectiveness throughout a mission’s life cycle. Thus, training activities should take place before and after deployment and be calibrated to the specific context of every mission, also encompassing, as appropriate, innovative issues, such as the environmental management of peacekeeping operations. We believe that a steady dialogue between the Secretariat and troop- and police-contributing countries, as well as among troop and police contributors, and their own training centres, is essential in order to share experiences and best practices, develop common standards and provide information on training opportunities in different fields. Partnerships are also crucial in the training sector. Therefore, we support enhancing synergies between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations, in particular the African Union, and as a member of European Union (EU) Italy welcomes the EU-United Nations cooperation to this end. We also promote triangular cooperation in training and capacity-building. Italy commends the initiatives taken by the Department of Peace Operations (DPO), the Department of Operational Support and the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance to implement the Action for Peacekeeping principles. Italy welcomes the multiform mechanisms established by the DPO to coordinate and share information on training activities and gaps. Tools such as the light coordination mechanism, the Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System and the uniformed capabilities requirements go in the right direction and Italy stands ready to strengthen their performances. Italy is the largest provider of Blue Helmets within the Group of Western European and other States and one of the most generous contributors to the peacekeeping budget. As such, Italy places training and capacity- building activities at the core of its commitment to peacekeeping. Fruitful and articulate cooperation is already in place with the United Nations and several Member States. Over the past five years, our military training centres — including the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units, located in Vicenza, the Post-Conflict Operations Study Centre in Turin and the Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence, located near Rome — have provided specialized training and capacity-building to well over 10,000 military and police officers from 118 countries and 17 international organizations. The Italian training pledges for 2019 encompass a wide range of courses for more than 700 military and police units. Our training curricula comprise different subjects, including protection of civilians and the responsibility to protect, cultural heritage, environmental protection, women and peace and security, gender protection, ammunition disposal and mine clearance, together with courses for patrol leaders. We strongly believe that training plays a critical role in increasing women’s participation in peacekeeping operations, and for the current year we are offering a new set of courses on the gender perspective and the deployment of female engagement teams. (spoke in French) Parts of our training courses for police forces are also taught in French. (spoke in English) I would like to conclude by paying the most respectful tribute to all the men and women who are serving the values of the United Nations in the field, bringing peace and security where they are most needed, as well as to those who have lost their lives doing so over the years.

I now give the floor to the representative of India.

It is a privilege to see you, Sir, presiding over this important open debate. As a long-standing and traditional peacekeeper, we welcome your initiative. We thank the Secretary-General and the briefers for their insights. Peacekeeping today is in the domain of a vaguely defined no-man’s-land. It lies somewhere between trying to keep the peace in fragile environments and trying to enforce the maintenance of peace where there is none to keep. Operational concepts for such objectives are being put in place. It is also necessary to have properly equipped and well-trained personnel to meet the expectations of deployment in challenging environments in order to fulfil a range of mandates. Responses to new security environments cannot merely ratchet up traditional methodologies. They require a willingness to adapt abilities to meet emerging realities, as envisaged in the Secretary-General’s Action for Peace initiative. As a country with a long tradition of peacekeeping, we offer the following suggestions to enhance performance and improve capacities. First, to ensure performance in peacekeeping, the Secretariat needs to carry out a realistic assessment of the contingents being selected and deployed in mission areas. Troop competencies need to be a critical requirement of selection criteria. On the other hand, accountability for troop-contributing countries should entail adherence to training plans, including predeployment and in-mission training, so that key mission tasks are not left to be learned on the job. Secondly, capacity-building and training benchmarks relating to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, gender sensitivity, requirements of conduct and discipline and environmental standards are key ingredients. It was with that intent that last year India commenced its funding of the United Nations Pipeline to Peacekeeping Command Programme, with a focus on conduct and discipline. Over a period of three years, the Programme will help develop the capacity of future commanders and managers to lead by example and raise awareness of United Nations standards of conduct among personnel. Thirdly, we welcome initiatives such as mobile training teams and the training of trainers, which pool instructors from Member States. They are an innovative effort to impart training to new troop-contributing countries. In that way, United Nations experience can be shared with minimal financial implications. Fourthly, as the importance of logistical support and enablers grows, capacity-building for enablers requires attention. Specialized units, such as field hospitals and engineering and signal companies, that are already deployed in missions can provide training to core groups within mission areas, thereby enhancing capacities through in-mission training. India employs its United Nations peacekeeping experience to partner with other Member States in capacity-building initiatives in a very tangible manner. One such example is our successful recent co-deployment initiative with Kazakhstan in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. India’s Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping conducts mission-specific predeployment training to ensure the highest standard of performance for the troops being deployed. It also conducts international courses based on United Nations guidelines, with the goal of enhancing the capacity of military observers, contingent officers, staff and logistics officers and female officers. In order to enhance effectiveness, peacekeepers are also trained in French and Arabic. India has recently concluded a field training exercise on United Nations peacekeeping with 18 African countries. We are planning to do more. Training is not only a prerequisite to fulfil mandates; it is a must to ensure safety and security in difficult environments. Let me conclude by rephrasing the well- known military adage to suit current peacekeeping requirements — the more peacekeepers sweat in times of peace, the less they bleed in situations of conflict.

I now give the floor to the representative of Brazil.

I thank you, Mr. President, for convening this important debate. I would also like to congratulate you, Sir, and Indonesia for assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of May. I also thank Secretary-General António Guterres, Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho and Mr. Björn Holmberg for their insightful briefings. We take this opportunity to pay tribute to all those who have fallen serving under the United Nations flag, including the 30 Blue Helmets who have lost their lives in 2019. The recent attacks against Blue Helmets demonstrate the continued need to ensure that our troops have the proper training, equipment and logistical support necessary to implement mission mandates and guarantee their safety and security. Those are also commitments that we adhered to in the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and in the action plan based on the Santos Cruz report. Guaranteeing the effectiveness of our peacekeeping endeavours requires a comprehensive and integrated approach that comprises political will, financial support, realistic mandates, adequate equipment, cooperation from regional actors, peacebuilding activities and, of course, tailored training. When it comes to training, it is essential to strengthen existing mechanisms to assess the concrete needs of each mission, so that training efforts can factor in the specific challenges found on the ground. We are glad to see that the Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System is becoming an important tool to address missions’ capacity gaps. Brazil recognizes the current efforts by the Secretariat to develop and review its field manuals. We have been an active supporter of that process, including by hosting and sending representatives to workshops. In line with the shared commitments and United Nations environmental policy on field missions, Brazil has also shared with the Secretariat its guidelines for environmental practices in missions under the aegis of international organizations. In some instances, in-mission training will also be necessary to maintain the skills of troops and adapt them to changing circumstances. Over the years, Brazil has deployed mobile training teams to several countries in Africa and Latin America. Most recently, during the Peacekeeping Ministerial held on 29 March, Brazil was glad to pledge to deploy a team of experts in jungle operations to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Brazil has shared its experience of more than 70 years of participation in United Nations peacekeeping with other troop-contributing countries and police-contributing countries, including through the partnerships of the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Centre. We have hosted different courses in close cooperation with the United Nations. Brazil will host the United Nations Buddy First Aid Train-the-Trainer course in 2019 and the Senior Mission Leaders Course in 2020. Brazil has also provided training to African military contingents on the management of engineering projects. Brazil is fully committed to the women and peace and security agenda, including by offering specific training on this issue for both uniformed and civilian peacekeepers. Recently, a Brazilian officer, Captain Márcia Braga, was awarded the honour of Military Gender Advocate of 2018 by the United Nations, in recognition of her work as an adviser in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic. She is an outstanding example of the positive impact that women can have in peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities. The training that we offer must, above all, ensure that peacekeeping operations have a transformative impact on the ground. General Elias Martins Filho gave a sound example of how a quick-impact project was used to mitigate rising tension in a local community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our own experience in Haiti demonstrates that quick-impact projects, programmatic activities and peacebuilding activities can garner local support for the military and police components of peacekeeping missions. United Nations peacekeepers should receive adequate training to play the role of early peacebuilders. Improving peacekeeping operations requires a collective effort. The Council can count on Brazil’s full commitment to attain that objective.

I now give the floor to the representative of Japan.

I thank Indonesia for convening today’s meeting. I also thank the Secretary-General and the two briefers for their insightful briefings. Due to the difficult operational environments and complex challenges that current peace operations are facing, it is imperative to enhance both the performance and the safety and security of peacekeepers. We welcome the steps taken by the United Nations and Member States to address those issues through training and capacity-building. However, further efforts by various stakeholders are necessary. Japan has supported capacity-building for peacekeepers from 45 countries over the past five years. Based on our experience, I would like to make two suggestions that we believe will help to ensure the effective delivery of training. First, the training and capacity-building needs of troop- and police-contributing countries (TCCs/PCCs) and field missions should be addressed effectively through partnerships. The Secretariat has several channels to identify those needs, including assessment and advisory visits of the Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System and in-mission performance evaluations of contingents. In order to conduct training that incorporates those inputs, we will need strong partnerships among TCCs and PCCs, the Secretariat and supporting countries. In 2014, the Secretariat launched an innovative framework to promote such cooperation, called the Triangular Partnership Project. Conducting training through the project has allowed us to effectively address the needs of TCCs and PCCs and field missions, because such training is organized by the Secretariat, which receives direct feedback from the missions and assessment and advisory visits. That ensures that personnel learn the specific skills that they need for their mission. Triangular partnerships can be applied to the development of any type of capabilities, from infantry to enablers. They can also be used to address a wide spectrum of training needs, from basic training, to predeployment training, to in-mission training. In fact, the development potential goes beyond training. The triangular partnership model can even serve as a platform to facilitate innovative approaches, such as equipment contribution and co-deployment. Our second suggestion is to establish an effective mechanism to rapidly scale up critical expertise for a huge number of personnel in a short period of time. We sometimes need to assist tens of thousands of personnel in acquiring standardized skills, in order to enhance their performance and security. Buddy first aid is one such skill. As one of the innovative approaches to achieve such an ambitious goal, the Department of Operational Support has been trying to establish trainer pyramids in the field of medical training. That endeavour has just begun, and further efforts are required to make the trainer-pyramid concept work. For example, TCCs and PCCs should dispatch qualified candidates to training courses. The United Nations and supporting countries have to certify trainees’ performances according to strict standards. In conclusion, let me reiterate Japan’s commitment to capacity-building in order to ensure that peacekeepers have the skills that they need to safely carry out their mandates. We will continue to support engineering and medical training through the triangular partnership model, and we are ready to provide mobile training and training-of-trainers courses in the area of engineering. Japan will also continue to facilitate women’s participation in United Nations peace operations through training. We co-hosted, with the Department of Peace Operations, the first ever capacity-building training for women’s protection advisers in Tokyo last December. We will continue to pursue that goal, including through dispatching female trainers to capacity-building programmes.

I now give the floor to the representative of Pakistan.

Let me also start by thanking Indonesia for organizing this debate and for bringing much-needed colour to this Chamber. Let me also thank the Secretary-General, the Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Director of the Challenges Forum for their briefings. Pakistan is a strong and consistent supporter of multilateralism, with the United Nations at its centre, to effectively address the global challenges of peace and security. Peacekeeping remains a pivotal tool to achieve that objective. Pakistan’s participation in United Nations peacekeeping is the most tangible demonstration of our commitment to the United Nations and a practical way of reaffirming our abiding faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. For close to six decades, despite our own challenges, we have contributed and provided personnel, assets, training and financing for United Nations peacekeeping. We are also host to one of the earliest United Nations peacekeeping missions, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, which continues to play an invaluable role in a volatile and fraught environment. Peacekeeping has, over the years, evolved from single-dimensional monitoring to multidimensional mandates, as recognized by resolution 2086 (2013), adopted under Pakistan’s presidency of the Council. Conflicts today are becoming more complex, prolonged and lethal, posing new challenges for peacekeepers. The protection of civilians, supporting peace processes, peace-building, national capacity-building and institution-building are now all interconnected dimensions of peacekeeping missions. That is the context in which ongoing reviews, debates and discussions on the evolving nature of peacekeeping have to be situated. Allow me to make six quick points. First, predeployment training, preparation and the professional competence of peacekeepers are key to success in the field. The Secretariat must ensure, through predeployment assessments, that only the best and adequately equipped are deployed. Pakistan has been a leader in the field, and the performance of our troops in the field is a testimony to the premium that we place on training and professionalism. Secondly, best practices and real on-ground experience must be incorporated into manuals that are shared with key players. Persons selected to impart training must also have on-ground peacekeeping experience and not rely on theory alone. We have offered our expertise to other troop-contributing countries (TCCs) in that regard. Thirdly, the drafting of the mandates of peacekeeping missions should be a phased process to allow for consultation with relevant TCCs. Current trilateral consultation mechanisms — both formal and informal — must be improved and better utilized. The group of TCCs that Pakistan and Morocco co-chair has emerged as an important informal platform that can be used for that purpose. Fourthly, peacekeeping is a collective endeavour. It is important to keep our expectations from peacekeeping realistic. While TCCs are required to provide well-equipped and well-trained personnel, other peacekeeping stakeholders also have to give their best for real success. Achieving more with less is neither tenable nor rational. Fifthly, the principles of peacekeeping are not an impediment to mandate implementation. In fact, they ensure the United Nations credibility and neutrality, which have been achieved over decades of service and sacrifice. They are also critical to ensuring the safety and security of peacekeepers. Sixthly, in order to attain durable peace, a political track must accompany peacekeeping efforts. That is obviously essential for credible exit strategies. Pakistan’s credentials as among the largest and most consistent TCCs are well established. We have an elaborate system of training that has been institutionalized through the establishment of the Centre for International Peace and Stability, which was inaugurated by former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. At the recently held Peacekeeping Ministerial, in addition to personnel and assets, we also offered the peacekeeping competencies of the Centre to other TCCs. Pakistan is also participating in the relatively recent initiative of the training-the-trainers programme. In conclusion, let me say that our commitment to peacekeeping remains unflinching. Let us work together to make missions successful in the face of new and imposing challenges.

I now give the floor to the representative of Estonia.

I would like to thank the Indonesian presidency for convening today’s open debate on a topic of such importance, as well as Lieutenant General Martins Filho and Mr. Holmberg for their briefings. Estonia aligns itself with the statement to be delivered by the observer of the European Union. Additionally, I would like to make the following few remarks. First, I would like to underline that, in order to build truly successful peacekeeping operations, we need better prepared troops. Sufficient training that is suitable to the conditions on the ground and the right equipment and interoperability of forces is the responsibility of us all. Predeployment training based on consolidated standards is vital to meeting the increasing expectations of the United Nations. Secondly, let me highlight that Estonia fully supports striving towards more realistic, robust and tailored mandates for peacekeeping operations. Realistic mandates are the baseline according to which the performance of missions can be evaluated. Our expectations of United Nations peacekeeping missions are ever-growing. Missions are multidimensional and their objectives are much more far-reaching than mere peacekeeping. In order to meet multifaceted demands and expectations, missions ought to be agile and capable of constant adaptation. We continue to underline the relevance of our shared commitments under the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. Thirdly, on gender mainstreaming, peacekeeping operations and uniformed personnel are the most visible representatives of the United Nations, directly working with communities each day. For that reason, it is imperative to increase the number of female peacekeepers and promote their full, effective and meaningful participation in United Nations peace operations. Estonia has increased training opportunities for women in our armed forces. In time, that will have a direct and positive impact on Estonia’s ability as a troop- contributing country to accelerate gender parity among United Nations peacekeeping troops by encouraging female military and police personnel to apply. In addition to striving to increase the number of female peacekeepers, we consider it paramount to sensitize all peacekeepers on gender aspects in peace operations. Thorough predeployment training on human rights and gender-related issues, including on the prevention of, and response to, conflict-related sexual violence and the eradication of sexual exploitation and abuse, is a must. Furthermore, gender advisers should be an integral part of all United Nations missions, and their activities should be further reinforced in settings where conflict-related sexual violence is widespread Estonia has contributed to peace and stabilization operations around the world. We will continue to contribute to making a difference for a peaceful world and to promote those ideas throughout our bid for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for the period 2020-2021.

I now give the floor to the representative of Norway.

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the five Nordic countries, namely, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and my own country, Norway. We welcome Indonesia’s initiative to hold this timely debate. We fully agree that quality training and capacity-building are crucial for improving the safety, security and performance of peacekeepers. I will make three points, based on our experience and the current challenges facing United Nations peacekeeping. First, the Nordic countries cooperate to provide a wide range of training courses that are vital for the effective implementation of peacekeeping mandates. Those courses are open to all Member States, which means that a wide range of valuable perspectives are brought to discussions. The Nordic countries are also supporting the review and updating of the United Nations police training architecture, in line with the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping. Secondly, we strongly support the emphasis on innovative approaches to make training more effective. The in-mission training carried out by the Nordic Mobile Training Team in Mali is one example. The team from Finland and Sweden trained more than 400 soldiers and officers from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt and Liberia during a five-week period in Timbuktu. The training focused on strategies to cope with the demanding security environment in the mission area, such as counter-attack tactics, medical first aid, escorting and patrolling. That was a pilot project. We found it to be of great value to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. However, we also saw the need for well-coordinated preparation on the part of all those involved prior to the training period. We are therefore looking forward to learning from the project and sharing best practices, including with other countries that provided or received that training. Thirdly, if we are to improve the safety, security and performance of peacekeepers, training should focus on crisis management. That includes casualty evacuation and medical evacuation. It should also focus on the protection of civilians. Situational awareness is vital, as is good conduct and a gender-sensitive approach. We are convinced that, if peacekeepers take a gender-sensitive approach, it will enhance their capacity to engage with local communities in promoting reconciliation and peace. Special efforts must be made to ensure that women are included in all training activities. Moreover, those who have been trained must actually be deployed. A greater number of women peacekeepers will result in more effective implementation of mandates. Relevant training also needs to focus on work to prevent, investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed against peacekeepers. The Nordic countries are long-standing and consistent supporters of United Nations peacekeeping, and efforts in training and capacity-building will remain integral elements of our support.

I now give the floor to the representative of Israel.

Israel welcomes the initiative to convene a debate on training and capacity- building for United Nations peacekeepers. Over the past year, we have taken important steps to address the current gaps in training and capacity-building, most recently during the Peacekeeping Ministerial. If our ultimate goal is the full implementation of peacekeeping mandates, effective training is critical. We should establish clear training requirements and procedures and assist troop-contributing countries (TCCs) in the implementation of those procedures. We should also institute an effective process for validating the quality of training at the predeployment stage, in full coordination with TCCs. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”. Member States have collectively committed to better prepare, train and equip United Nations personnel through innovative approaches. Israel is committed to working with the United Nations to share our state-of- the-art medical expertise and enhance the medical training of TCCs. We have been working with the Division of Healthcare Management on two initiatives. The first of those is the development and implementation of buddy first aid training. Studies show that the loss of blood that occurs between the time of an injury and the arrival of the paramedics is the leading cause of death in 90 per cent of potentially survivable field injuries. If all peacekeepers are trained in basic first aid, they have a much better chance of saving the lives of their comrades in the field. Israel has been working with the United Nations to develop a first aid manual for United Nations peacekeepers. We also provided one of the United Nations first super-trainers, who has so far taught master trainer courses for TCCs in Italy and Ireland. Finally, Israel is working with the United Nations to develop a curriculum for field medic guidance and training. Those medical capabilities are crucial for peacekeeping forces. However, through our work with the United Nations, we have seen that there are significant differences in the level of preparedness of TCCs. It is therefore our duty to ensure that general standards are achieved and maintained by all forces. The United Nations should provide guidance and oversight to ensure that those standards and training materials reflect operational requirements. The United Nations cannot, however, be responsible for the individual training of each troop. Once the standards have been defined, approved and demonstrated through a limited number of United Nations-led courses, it is up to Member States and TCCs to ensure that all troops are trained according to the guidelines set by the United Nations. One project that can facilitate this is the Triangular Partnership Project. Israel hopes to continue to work to strengthen this initiative as it incorporates medical training over the next few years. As we pledged during the Peacekeeping Ministerial, we intend to continue contributing to United Nations medical training and plan to host a first-aid master trainer course in Israel. We also seek to work in partnership with TCCs to facilitate the implementation of predeployment medical training. The United Nations has taken positive steps over the past few years to improve training, especially in the medical field. There is much more work to be done, but we can be sure that working together will make us stronger. Creating partnerships through innovative mechanisms will help us achieve our common goals, as stated in the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. If we expect our troops to perform their duty in the field, it is our moral obligation to ensure that they have the necessary medical knowledge and equipment to fulfil their tasks.

I now give the floor to the representative of Fiji.

Let me start by congratulating you, Mr. President, on convening this open discussion and allowing us to contribute to the important topic of training and capacity-building in United Nations peacekeeping. Last year, the United Nations celebrated 70 years of peacekeeping. Over these 70 years, the United Nations has established more than 50 peacekeeping missions. More than 15,000 peacekeepers from Fiji have participated in United Nations missions, ranging from Timor-Leste to South Sudan. Fiji has also paid a heavy price, having lost 60 of our own men and women across these missions. Peacekeeping casualties remind us of the importance of training and capacity-building. United Nations peacekeepers need to be able to fulfil their mandates effectively, while minimizing casualties. This has become only more important as conflicts have become more complex and varied, both at the regional and the international levels. United Nations peacekeeping has evolved over the last 70 years, from mostly observer and peacekeeping missions into stabilization, justice support, transitional support, confidence restoration and multidimensional and enforcement tasks. These reflect the growing complexities of peace operations and mission mandates in increasingly complex conflicts. The United Nations and its peacekeepers are being asked to do more and more. This is indeed the right thing; of all the work that the United Nations does, peacekeeping is perhaps the most important. This work needs to be well supported, as do capacity-building and training. This support must be consistent and predictable and the capacity- building of peace operations must be of a high technical and operational quality. This can be achieved only if capacity-building and training needs are properly supported financially from the outset. In 2017, the Secretary-General unveiled reforms to integrate the United Nations peace and security pillar to support peacebuilding and make United Nations peacekeeping more effective. That was a timely decision. Peace operations must include, at their heart, peacebuilding and conflict resolution. At best, the mission of United Nations peacekeeping is to create spaces to make politics to work to enable leaders — both men and women representing their conflict-affected communities — to take measured risks to ensure peace. In environments affected by years of conflict, it takes time for markets to kick in; it takes time for institutions that protect civilians to kick in; and it takes time for politics to kick in. A high-performing peace operation needs to be able to reduce the time it takes for all of these to kick in. A good peacekeeping mission, at its core, is about broadening spaces in and between communities. This process involves peacekeepers interacting with the men, women and children who need their protection. But it also involves peacekeepers knowing what the stress points are; understanding hidden drivers of conflict; being able to identify victims and support them; and being able to identify and respond to systemic sexual violence. When the United Nations does peacekeeping well, we save lives, we promote sustainable development, we increase prospects for peace and we demonstrate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals. The world has become more dangerous for United Nations peacekeepers, as they must combat asymmetric threats from non-State actors. To be fit for purpose, peacekeepers will need to be highly trained in broader ways to respond to new and complex mandates. This will require capacity-building to focus on these skills, including new and specialized ones. One of these new skills in a new area relates to climate change. Water stress, extreme weather events and food insecurity associated with climate change are all drivers of conflict. They may exacerbate competition and conflicts. They may fuel the outbreak of new cycles of conflict in a context of intense competition for resources. Peace operations need to understand these climate-related drivers of conflict far better. They may be small performance improvements in our peace operations, but they will have far-reaching implications for stability and peacebuilding in the long term. Fiji has embarked on an ambitious peacekeeping capacity-building action plan to enhance its peace operation preparation for United Nations missions. It is doing so with the strong support of our regional partners, particularly Australia and New Zealand. Our ambition is to make Fiji’s peacekeepers fit for these more complex United Nations peacekeeping roles. As a significant troop-contributing country, we have an obligation to do far more to perform to the highest standards expected of us. We are proud that Fijian peacekeepers bring extraordinarily strong soft skills into complex peace operations. Fiji’s experience over 40 years of peacekeeping from deployments around the world has taught us important lessons, which we are systematically integrating into our preparations for new missions. We are doing so because we recognize that when peacekeepers strike a positive rapport with communities, it contributes hugely to improving dialogue and prospects for reconciliation. Fiji’s peacekeeping capacity-building action plan is firmly committed to improving all areas of peacekeeping. For a small developing country, partnerships are the way forward in its United Nations peacekeeping role. Fiji’s partnership with Australia and New Zealand may serve as a model for other small countries seeking to engage in United Nations peacekeeping. With the support of these and other traditional partners, including all of the permanent five members of the Council  — and your own country of Indonesia, Mr. President — we expect to go a lot further. We are preparing our forces to be able to speedily respond to climate-induced disasters, both in regions affected by conflict and regions that are not. We hope to be able to contribute these skills within United Nations peace operations. Fiji remains steadfast in our commitment to United Nations efforts to persistently improve performance and capacity-building.

I now give the floor to the representative of Argentina.

At the outset, I extend my appreciation to your country, Mr. President, for organizing this open debate. I also welcome the participation of the Secretary- General; the Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lieutenant General Elias Rodriguez Martins Filho; and Mr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the International Forum for the Challenges of Peacekeeping Operations, of which Argentina is honoured to be a member. I wish to highlight the importance of this space to discuss the vital need to achieve quality training and capacity-building in order to improve the performance of United Nations peacekeeping operations. We already have various commitments and initiatives in many United Nations forums, such as the Security Council Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations; the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations; and the Peacekeeping Ministerial. This debate is yet another opportunity to identify ways and means of enhancing and strengthening the capacities of peacekeeping operations to improve the performance of troops on the ground and to ensure the successful implementation of the mandates of these operations, as well as the shared commitments expressed in the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative. Argentina once again reiterates its firm commitment to United Nations peacekeeping operations, which began 62 years ago. We also reiterate our dedication to quality training and capacity-building for the maintenance of international peace and security. Through the Argentine Joint Peace Operations Training Centre (CAECOPAZ), Argentina is providing training and capacity-building par excellence to contingents and individuals to be deployed in United Nations peace operations. Thousands of officers, non-commissioned officers, men and women soldiers and civilian personnel from Argentina and friendly countries have been trained by CAECOPAZ in its 23 years of existence. Similarly, Argentine personnel returning from missions must submit a report on their completed mission, in which they share their experiences and lessons learned so that we can make relevant improvements in the future. Furthermore, Argentina has conducted numerous intersectional training courses regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse; international humanitarian law; the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sustainable Development Goals; and peacebuilding. The aim of these courses is to raise awareness of the roles of other actors within the United Nations system, especially the Peacebuilding Commission, in the implementation of successful mandates. Troop- and police-contributing countries must also receive technical and financial support in order to improve their performance on the ground. Moreover, peacekeeping missions must also be able to count on the necessary financial resources for the proper implementation of the tasks entrusted to them. In that connection, and given that the budget for peacekeeping operations is currently being discussed within the Fifth Committee, Argentina stresses the importance of avoiding further cuts in the financing of posts and programmes on development, human rights, gender and the protection of women and children. These posts and programmes play a key role in communicating the particular vulnerabilities of various populations. Fresh cuts would seriously undermine the ability of peacekeeping operations to protect these vulnerable populations. With regard to the protection of civilians in armed conflict, emphasis must be placed on the training of peacekeeping operations personnel to evaluate threats to international peace and security, taking into account the risk factors that could lead to possible crimes against humanity. Given that a key global commitment is to increase the number of women in United Nations peacekeeping operations, we must spare no effort in achieving broader general confidence — through training and not just by upgrading mission infrastructures — so that more and more women become peacekeepers. More women Blue Helmets would greatly improve communication and relationships between peacekeeping operations and local communities, especially with women and girls. In many ways, United Nations peacekeepers are being required to do more and more. The challenges they face are increasing in size and complexity. Member States and the Secretariat must find ways to maintain the best possible training in order to fulfil increasingly diverse mandates, identify gaps in capacity and work together to ensure that our peacekeeping operations are indeed fit for purpose. Argentina considers it a priority to continue the debate on how to strengthen training and capacity- building for peacekeeping personnel. We encourage further efforts to promote constructive, transparent and inclusive dialogue among States and other stakeholders, thereby giving our best to those societies and nations where our troops are deployed.

I now give the floor to the representative of El Salvador.

I thank Indonesia for convening this open debate and today’s briefers for their statements. As we all know, this debate is being held in a context of major challenges. As a country committed to peace, we reiterate our strong support for the initiatives led by the Organization. The United Nations has been undertaking peacekeeping missions for more than 70 years in various conflict zones around the world. We take this opportunity to honour the heroic work of the tens of thousands of uniformed and civilian peacekeeping personnel who have faced numerous dangerous situations over the years. El Salvador has a historic commitment to peacekeeping operations and is currently contributing to eight of them through military and police contingents, with a total of 289 troops, in support of various tasks helping to maintain international peace and security and in seeking to promote human rights and protect humanitarian aid. We are committed to the effective fulfilment of the specific mandates of each mission and to complying with United Nations performance standards and the codes of conduct agreed among Member States. Therefore, in order to fulfil this commitment to the best of our ability, we consider it of great importance to provide peacekeeping operations personnel with the necessary capabilities. This will ensure that they have the necessary tools to guarantee that each mission is conducted professionally, capably and effectively in resolving short-term conflicts and sustaining long-term peace. In that connection, it is important to train, build the capacities of and equip our uniformed and civilian personnel prior to their deployment and, as far as possible, build the specialized capacities needed for each case. These include language skills and approaches to improve force generation, the operational availability of equipment and the sustainability of existing equipment. At the same time, we believe it important to enhance understanding of the application of international law and human rights, including international humanitarian law, with the particular aim of protecting civilians and with a special emphasis on protecting the most vulnerable groups. Of course, we cannot overlook the essential need for the gender perspective here, including the empowerment of women, so as to address the perceptions, situations, experiences and specific abilities of women. We believe that educating staff on a broader gender perspective will provide a complementary and fundamental approach to this mechanism, so as to better understand and confront the different challenges that we all face on the ground. We would like to highlight that, at the national level, we are making huge efforts to improve training for our personnel through our Peace Operations Training Centre, which is an institution attached to El Salvador’s Ministry of Defence. We provide comprehensive training for our military personnel and, through internal agreements, also train elements of our national civil police, military observers and future trainers. In addition, and in coordination with the Department of Peace Operations (DPO), our police staff were assessed by the Selection Assistance and Assessment Team in late 2018, which prepared police officers for rapid deployment and ensured they were ready to execute their mandates successfully on the ground. We are grateful to DPO for its collaboration in organizing the assessment and we are working with it on follow- up activities. As complementary measures, we are also continuing to train our staff in language skills, with courses through public and private partnerships, as well as in other pertinent disciplines, such as marksmanship and handling various kinds of vehicles. We must promote innovative approaches to achieve these aspirations. At the same time, we must strengthen traditional approaches such as partnerships and triangular cooperation among States and other relevant stakeholders, as well as countries’ joint contributions. At the same time, we underscore the need to increase financing to better enhance capacity-building. We take this opportunity to thank those partner countries that have supported us over the years in order to increase our participation in terms of the number and capabilities of our staff. We are currently the largest contributor of the Central American region. We also call on those countries that are in a position to continue making these contributions to do so for these initiatives. El Salvador would also like to reiterate its support for the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, which we believe plays an important role in the development and implementation of training on the matter. We have no doubt that this initiative will make a vital contribution to the activities of the United Nations in this area. Finally, we wish to stress how essential it is to ensure training for peacekeeping personnel enjoys greater predictability and sustainability. This will help them to bolster their performance and achieve their objectives, including those in mission mandates. The Organization can therefore count on my country to formulate initiatives that seek to take practical, realistic and effective action and to ensure that peacekeeping personnel are given the necessary resources so that they can reach their maximum potential.

I now give the floor to the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations. Mr. Vale de Almeida: As this is my first time addressing the Council during your presidency, Sir, I wish you, on behalf of the European Union (EU), the greatest success for the month of May. I am honoured to speak on behalf of the EU and its 28 member States. The candidate countries North Macedonia, Serbia and Albania; the country of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina; as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, align themselves with this statement. In recent years, the European Union has welcomed an in-depth analysis conducted by the United Nations to review the global peace and security architecture. The reform currently being implemented by the Secretariat is a crucial step in adapting our collective action, making it fit for purpose. The Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative, which aims at renewing our collective engagement and attaining excellence, is another important milestone in this direction. The European Union and its member States continue to stress the paramount importance of political solutions to conflicts and addressing root causes and drivers of conflict, as well as the priority that should be given to prevention. This is a central component of our own EU Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy and drives our efforts to strengthen the EU Common Security and Defence Policy, structures and instruments. This is also in line with the Secretary- General’s determination to place prevention at the centre of United Nations peace and security efforts. Only an integrated approach can lead to truly sustaining peace and, in that respect, the quality of training and the overall performance of the peacekeepers are of paramount importance. The deployment of United Nations peacekeeping personnel in fragile political and security environments has resulted in a rise in the number of deaths, as well as other security incidents. We unwaveringly support measures being developed and undertaken to improve the safety and security of United Nations personnel. We are committed to exploring all options that contribute to the safety and security of United Nations peacekeepers on the ground and, by so doing, ensure better protection for civilians and guarantee a more effective maintenance of peace. The European Union and its member States have been leading efforts over the past few years to ensure the safety and security of United Nations personnel. In that context, we welcome United Nations initiatives to better integrate modern technology and peacekeeping intelligence capabilities into peace operations. By helping to improve the situational awareness of troops and police in real time, this will contribute to the implementation of mission mandates, to the protection of civilians and to the security of personnel, including humanitarian actors, on the ground. But technology alone cannot be the solution. Instead, a coherent combination of modern technology with relevant methods placed at the disposal of well- prepared and trained staff is imperative. We continue to support the efforts of the United Nations to further develop these capacities for current and future missions, including through our own United Nations- EU Strategic Partnership on Peace Operations and Crisis Management. In many ways, training is central to carrying out peacekeeping mandates. In the spirit of A4P, we believe that properly training and equipping mission personnel before and during deployment — whether they belong to a military, police or civilian component, and on the basis of consolidated standards  — is crucial to ensuring mission success as well as to safeguarding the safety and security of peacekeepers. It is essential, in our view, that such training include predeployment and in-mission training and be adapted to operational challenges and focused on gender and human rights components, including child protection, women and peace and security, and combating sexual and gender-based violence, as well as sexual exploitation and abuse. This is especially relevant in increasingly complex environments and could also be enhanced in cooperation with regional actors. Moreover, for us, relevant and appropriate training remains the cornerstone of any performance policy. We welcome the Secretary-General’s emphasis on increased accountability and his efforts to strengthen the system’s ability to deal with sexual exploitation and abuse swiftly and decisively. We remain committed to working in the long term with partners, all troop- and police-contributing countries and stakeholders in the spirit of genuine cooperation. This will ensure that prevention measures are further strengthened, victims are provided with assistance, allegations are duly investigated and justice is served by the countries that contribute the personnel. We also want to see the Secretariat optimally configured and delivering as one. In line with resolution 2436 (2018), we very much welcome progress on the development of the comprehensive performance assessment system, with clear standards of performance for assessing and evaluating all United Nations civilian and uniformed personnel. Robust and objective methodologies based on clear, well-defined and identified benchmarks are central to improving not only mission planning and evaluation, but also mandate implementation at large. Finally, we continue to underscore the importance of the protection of civilians as a core task of peacekeeping. In this regard, regular assessments constitute an indispensable part of our performance policy, as they ensure that the protection of civilians under threat of physical violence is fulfilled. The establishment of the Strategic Planning and Monitoring Unit within the Executive Office of the Secretary- General is a welcome step forward towards improved assessments and enhanced operational output. The European troop- and police-contributing countries will continue to support the Secretariat in delivering both the capacity and willingness to create safer environments for communities under peacekeepers’ protection. Training is primarily a Member State’s responsibility in order to provide well-trained and well-equipped uniformed personnel and partake in a collective effort to better prepare, train and equip these personnel. However, the European Union, through the deployment of its own missions and operations, implements a whole array of action in matters of training and capacity- building with a view to complementing United Nations efforts in this regard. Indeed, the European Union will continue to be a loyal partner, not only by supporting United Nations peacekeeping operations, but also within the framework of our strengthened Common Security and Defence Policy. We continue to support each other and asset-sharing in-theatre, be it in Mali, the Central African Republic, Somalia, Libya, the Balkans or Iraq. We share best practices on conduct and discipline, and lessons learned from strategic reviews and assessments of our missions and operations. In our biannual steering committee meetings between the EU and the United Nations, we discuss operational needs, agree on benchmarks and ensure the strategic direction of our partnership, all to better align our efforts and improve our modalities for cooperation in different areas. This is reflected in the recently adopted 2019- 2021 priorities of the United Nations-EU strategic partnership. As one of our eight priorities, we have agreed to contribute to the enhancement of performance by reinforcing cooperation on training and capacity- building, including on exercises. To this end, we are exploring how our services could help facilitate support from EU member States for different types of trainings, including on human rights, international humanitarian law and gender, as well as other relevant trainings. This means engaging more systematically with the European Security and Defence College, as well as with the European Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres. We are also deeply committed to advancing the women and peace and security agenda. We welcome the recently approved uniformed gender-parity strategy for the period 2018-2028, as well as all efforts aimed at increasing the number and participation of women in peacekeeping and the integration of a gender perspective into all phases of the policymaking process and analysis. Part of the solution lies in increasing the quantity and quality of training for women personnel. We made women and peace and security the first of the joint priorities of the United Nations-EU Strategic Partnership on Peace Operations and Crisis Management for the period 2019-2021, as well as a cross-cutting priority across all areas of our cooperation. Our missions and operations around the world are already working together on the ground to enhance the integration of a gender perspective throughout their activities. We are mapping ongoing cooperation on the ground and, as mentioned during the United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial on 29 March, we have agreed to organize a joint United Nations-EU workshop in Brussels on enabling factors for engaging more women in all roles and areas of expertise and at all levels of peacekeeping and crisis management. The aim of that joint effort is to build on ongoing work and existing data in this area and to arrive at a set of practical recommendations that will be shared widely. We hope to encourage a practice of regular, informed and practical exchanges on enabling factors for engaging more women in peacekeeping between EU member States, other United Nations troop- and police-contributing countries and experts in that area. In conclusion, the EU welcomes the emphasis that Secretary-General António Guterres puts on partnerships — and the EU-United Nations partnership in particular — as key to global peace and security.

I now give the floor to the representative of Slovakia.

At the outset, let me sincerely congratulate you, Mr. President, and the entire Indonesian delegation on successfully assuming the presidency of the Security Council for this month. We also thank you, Sir, for convening this open debate on the training and capacity-building of United Nations peacekeepers. I wish to align my delegation’s statement with the statement just delivered by the observer of the European Union. My statement will be very short, and I will limit myself to a few additional remarks on beyond those already made on behalf of the European Union. Today’s open debate builds on an important resolution  — resolution 2436 (2018), adopted in September last year. The resolution provides important provisions and commitments to ensure the effective training of United Nations peacekeepers as an enabling component of delivering effective performance as well as strengthening the safety and security of military, police and civilian personnel in United Nations missions. Similarly, the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, as part of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative spearheaded by the Secretary-General, represents yet another important milestone to shore up the effectiveness, credibility and integrity of United Nations peacekeeping operations. The safety, security and performance of United Nations peacekeepers was also the subject of this year’s deliberations in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. While consensus was achieved on those particular chapters, we regret that a substantive report as a whole could not be adopted. As a committed and long-term troop- and police- contributing country (TCC/PCC), Slovakia remains strongly committed to improving the overall effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping operations through its comprehensive national predeployment training, comprising language training, cultural diversity awareness and the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, among other areas, in order to ensure the security and best performance of our peacekeepers soon after entering the operational area. In order to achieve operational readiness status, Slovakia has developed a demanding national training system that puts emphasis on the specifics of the mission, the rules of engagement and situational awareness. It is also our common national practice to include subject matter experts  — personnel from previous deployment on missions  — to develop scenarios that are also part of the assessment team for the certification of the contingent. Key leadership personnel receive operational updates and consultations with deployed contingents. In addition, women are an integral part of the training teams, which contributes to their equal mission preparation and performance. We welcome the recently launched comprehensive performance assessment system in selected United Nations missions, including in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), where we have our largest contingent. We hope that it will prove to be a useful tool in ensuring proper conduct and discipline and also serve to deliver important feedback for participating TCCs and PCCs. In that regard, ensuring active communication among the Secretariat’s assessment teams, force commanders and the respective TCCs and PCCs is absolutely essential. We welcome the upcoming visit to Slovakia next month by the UNFICYP Force Commander Major General Cheryl Pearce, to observe the training of Slovak peacekeepers. Slovakia also appreciates the introduction of the Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System, which will help in capacity-planning, reducing critical capability gaps and ensuring the smooth transition of services among Members States as their deployments undergo changes. We think that the key to success in the force generation process is timely, systematic and inclusive communication among all stakeholders. In conclusion, as we approach the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers this month — on 29 May — allow me to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all those who wear blue helmets and serve under the United Nations flag, as well as to pay tribute to all those who have lost their lives in the service of peace.

I now give the floor to the representative of Jordan.

I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for this month. I wish you every success in carrying out your duties. I would also like to thank you for having convened this important meeting, which addresses one of the most important tools in enabling the United Nations to carry out its tasks in the maintenance of international peace and security. I also wish to express my gratitude to the Secretary-General and all of today’s briefers for their valuable presentations. Based on our vision and the humanitarian role of the Jordanian Armed Forces  — the Arab Army  — and the General Security Apparatus, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been participating in United Nations peacekeeping operations all over the world for many decades, contributing more than 100,000 men and women. Throughout that period, the Kingdom of Jordan has never hesitated to participate in United Nations missions, despite the difficult tasks and dangerous environments. We are a model example in respect of conduct and discipline, while maintaining high levels of readiness and competence, which have been internationally recognized. The Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan attaches special importance to and greatly supports the Secretary-General’s efforts to reform and restructure the Department of Peacekeeping Operations with a view to improving the performance of its missions. Jordan is proud to be among the first countries to support the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, in line with our country’s principles. We also support the Secretary-General’s great efforts to strengthen United Nations peacekeeping operations and preventive diplomacy. As a result of the continuing evolution of the concepts of United Nations mandates and their different nature, Jordan established a National Peace Operations Training Institute in 1996 to train members of the Jordanian Armed Forces of all ranks on peacekeeping operations, as well as training sisterly and friendly troops. From its establishment to the beginning of this year, the Institute has trained 66,000 soldiers from Jordan and other countries. The Institute offers several courses, including mechanisms of action for peacekeeping operations, the protection of civilians and children, disarmament, rehabilitation, international law and humanitarian law, among others. The Institute has started to provide courses on cultural awareness in 2003, given the importance of that topic for the success of peacekeeping missions in different areas of conflict. The courses are divided into two. The first is directed at friendly foreign countries and aims to increase the knowledge and experience of participants in terms of their cultural awareness regarding Arab and Islamic traditions and customs, as well as social, ethnic and family structures, religious aspects, stereotypes, and working with translators and negotiators, taking into account the nature and place of the mission. The second is directed at the Jordanian Armed Forces and other Arab countries and aims to increase the knowledge and experience of participants in terms of their cultural awareness regarding the customs, traditions and religions of different peoples. At the level of peacekeeping policing, Jordan’s General Security Directorate decided in 2015 to establish a Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which includes the Police Training Institute for Peacekeeping Operation, in order to provide participants with advanced policing skills, in line with the highest international standards. Through development and restructuring, Jordan looks forward to becoming a regional centre for specialized training in peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is committed to implementing its action plan for women and its priorities with a view to increasing the participation of women in peacekeeping operations at all levels. The Jordanian Armed Forces — Arab Army — managed to increase the number of women observers and staff officers to 15 per cent by the end of last year. We reaffirm our continued support for the Secretary-General’s efforts regarding a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will continue to support the efforts of the United Nations to achieve, maintain and build peace at all levels. I wish to recall Jordan’s pledge during the latest Peacekeeping Ministerial at the end of March to provide a mechanized infantry battalion, a special operations unit, a level-II field hospital and a protection unit, in addition to the resources we have already provided. We look forward to the Jordanian police unit beginning its work in the near future, having been selected to participate in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei. We also look forward to reviving our participation in peacekeeping operations, which has been limited over the past few years owing to the situation in the Middle East. In conclusion, I can only ask for God’s mercy for those peacekeeping martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for a world of peace and security.

I now give the floor to the representative of Ecuador.

We are pleased that you, Mr. President, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia — a country that has played an active role in peacekeeping missions since 1957 and is currently one of the largest troop-contributing countries — are presiding over this important debate on the theme “Investing in peace: improving the safety and performance of United Nations peacekeepers”. There are two fundamental issues leading today’s debate. First, peacekeeping missions continue to operate in difficult environments and with more complex mandates, including providing support for difficult political processes, protecting civilians and supporting national capacity-building, particularly in the areas of security, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Secondly, asymmetrical attacks and the use of terrorist tactics against peacekeepers undermine the implementation of peace-support mandates and demand greater efforts to safeguard them and guarantee their safety. Ecuador therefore reiterates its support for the Secretary-General in his efforts to reform the United Nations by means of improving the Organization’s capacity to efficiently and effectively fulfil its mandates. We are also grateful for the presence of the Secretary-General at this important debate, as well as that of all other briefers and for the information provided. Ecuador also believes it is important to highlight the various initiatives and actions that have been carried out in the past year to address fundamental issues: the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, to which our country is a signatory; the Peacekeeping Ministerial in September 2018, which was held with a view to gaining political support and making peacekeeping missions more efficient and safer as well as to mobilize the strongest possible support for political solutions and well-structured, well-equipped and well-trained forces; and the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, which is supported by 151 Member States, including my country, through which we renewed our collective commitment to United Nations peacekeeping operations and reaffirmed the primacy of politics in resolving conflicts and the support role played by peacekeeping operations in that respect. It is also relevant to mention the 2017 voluntary compact on preventing and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations, to which Ecuador is also one of the signatories. We believe that the training of personnel ahead of their deployment is key to contributing positively to that joint commitment. Accountability and increasing international cooperation are two other elements that we believe are necessary for the eradication of sexual exploitation and abuse. All of those actions reflect the vital importance that host countries, the Security Council, the General Assembly, troop- and police-contributing countries and the Secretariat continue to work in a committed manner in each of their roles in order to revitalize those instruments and ensure the responsible, efficient and effective deployment of peacekeeping missions. Ecuador believes that the new peace and security structure, which has been in place since January, as well as the accession of the majority of Member States, including our country, to the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative and the implementation of the action plan on improving the security of United Nations peacekeepers, all generate an important impetus to establish a performance evaluation system for peacekeeping operations, which would have a positive impact on accountability to Member States and would promote transparency and comparability among missions. In that regard, we welcome the fact that the Secretariat has embraced the recommendation issued by the Board of Auditors and is ensuring that the future development of that comprehensive performance evaluation system and its experimental application to peacekeeping operations is adapted to the requests of the Security Council and General Assembly. Firm in our conviction as a country of peace, Ecuador has been participating in several peacekeeping operations through its presence mainly of military observers, which includes female personnel, on several missions — the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan and the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Our country is committed to increasing the percentage of women participating as military observers. In recognizing the importance of women’s participation in peacekeeping operations and seeking to promote gender equity within our armed forces on a permanent basis, we have developed workshops on gender and women and peace and security through Ecuador’s Peacekeeping Missions School, which is the entity responsible for training our military personnel before deployment to peacekeeping missions. In conclusion, as a country committed to United Nations peacekeeping missions, in which it has been participating since 1952, Ecuador wishes to commend the commitment of troop- and police-contributing countries and pay tribute to the memory of the male and female uniformed and civilian personnel who have sacrificed their lives in carrying out United Nations peacekeeping mandates.

I now give the floor to the representative of Kazakhstan.

We congratulate you, Mr. President, on the smooth start to your leadership of the Council for this month, outfitting all the members of the Council with shirts and getting them ready for the heat of summer, in a very original move. We wish you all the best in your able stewardship of the Council for this month. We also thank the Indonesian presidency for highlighting the importance of enhancing training and capacity-building in order to improve the security and performance of United Nations peacekeepers and civilians serving in conditions featuring extreme violence and terrorism. The death toll is rising, and we pay tribute to all who have fallen in the cause of peace. We must ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain. It is our moral responsibility to provide adequate levels of training, preparedness and equipment at various levels and modes, and my delegation would like to make the following proposals. First, we must help troop-contributing countries (TCCs) to build their own capacities adequate to peace operations by developing national trainer cadres, refurbishing training facilities, refining training materials and providing training equipment. Secondly, we should invest in critical enablers such as engineering, aviation, medical, logistical, signal and counter-improvised explosive device (IED) capabilities. Predeployment training for specific missions, technical and advisory assistance, equipment maintenance and sustainability, strategic-level planning and in-mission competence is equally important. Thirdly, we must master communication skills, languages and content on international law and humanitarian law. In that regard, the training of civilian components engaged in dangerous tasks on field missions, as well as of larger numbers of women, is critical. Fourthly, we should prepare peacekeepers for measures related to early warning, information-sharing and, as appropriate, intelligence-sharing, as well as self-defence. Fatalities can be reduced only if we understand and combat the drivers of conflict. In that regard, primary prevention can be achieved by investing in development by using combined regional approaches as well as national ones, and through cooperation among Member States. We should therefore focus on the best ways to harness the potential of international instruments to that end, including the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, which Kazakhstan strongly supports. Fifthly, we must promote partnerships and co-deployments, which can enhance the credibility and effectiveness of United Nations missions through the engagement of countries, regional organizations and the world community. Kazakhstan would like to thank India for its partnership, which includes predeployment training conducted in both India and Kazakhstan. We are currently operating in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon together with an Indian battalion. Such co-deployment is valuable in ensuring capacity- building for new TCCs. Kazakhstan pays great attention to peacekeeping training and the development of its national capacity. This year I am pleased to announce that the peacekeeping courses on the protection of civilians and for United Nations staff officers at our Partnership for Peace Training Centre, KAZCENT, have been certified and are available to partner nations. Today’s peacekeeping missions very often lack technology adequate to overcoming the brutal threats that exist on the ground. Such avoidable failures require adequate equipment, technology and innovation. In that regard, we would like to inform the Council that the fifth Partnership for Technology in Peacekeeping Symposium will be held between 28 and 31 May in Nur-Sultan. The focus of the Symposium will be technological improvements to enhance peacekeepers’ safety, strengthen communications, improve situational awareness, counter IEDs, introduce tele-health and reduce environmental impacts. We would like to take this opportunity to once again remind Member States, international organizations, think tanks and academia that they can participate in the Symposium in our capital with the aim of establishing and improving partnerships that strengthen the security of our missions and enhance capacity-building.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Sudan.

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate Indonesia on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of May and thank Germany for its leadership of the Council in April. I also want to thank Her Excellency Mrs. Retno Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, for her presence in the Council this morning. I commend the Secretary-General and the two briefers for their presentations. The Sudan aligns itself with the statement delivered by the representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries and the statement to be delivered by the observer of the African Union. I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all the peacekeepers who have lost their lives while serving the cause of peace worldwide. Their valuable sacrifices will always be recognized. The report of the High-level Independent Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (see S/2015/446) and the report by former United Nations Force Commander Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, entitled Improving security of United Nations peacekeepers, emphasized the necessity of training and capacity-building for improving peacekeepers’ performance, safety and security. The Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, the Security Council Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations, along with the efforts to reform the peace and security pillar through the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative and its Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, have all stressed the importance of training and capacity-building in conducting effective, efficient and robust peacekeeping operations. The implementation of those commitments is therefore vital to advancing the Declaration and ensuring that we walk the talk. Partnerships between the United Nations and regional organizations, especially the African Union, are pivotal to enhancing the capacity and training of peacekeepers, for African Union-led peace operations as well as those of the United Nations. The streamlining of training and capacity-building in Africa is crucial if we are to maintain inclusivity, cover all the African subregions equally and enhance women’s participation, thereby supporting the agenda of silencing the guns in Africa by 2020 and advancing the cause of African solutions to African problems. Taking the culture, values and traditions of host nations into consideration is crucial to the capacity-building and training of peacekeepers in order to make them fit for purpose and to address the diverse nature of the challenges and mandates in the field. Giving regional perspectives a leading role in matters of training, capacity-building, performance, safety and security is therefore essential. The intelligence services of host countries could also provide peacekeepers with prevention assistance, which could help to reduce fatalities among uniformed and civilian personnel. In order to harness that intelligence, we must enhance cooperation and promote confidence and coordination between peacekeeping operations, the Secretariat and host countries. Furthermore, transparency and synergy between the Secretariat, the Security Council and troop- and police-contributing countries are central to evaluating and reviewing performance. Following the new dawn of its December revolution, the Sudan is looking forward to participating in future peacekeeping operations once the gradual exit of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur is concluded. We are relying on our long- standing experience with uniformed peacekeepers, including our recent participation in peacekeeping and military observation under the mandate of the African Union in the Comoros and the umbrella of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in South Sudan, respectively. Training and capacity-building for our peacekeepers is now very much needed.

I now give the floor to the representative of Guatemala.

We would like to congratulate the Republic of Indonesia on assuming the presidency of the Council for this month. We thank you for convening this open debate, Mr. President, and for circulating the concept note (S/2019/359, annex) that serves as the basis for our deliberations today. We are also grateful for the briefings on the subject, which is very relevant to the successful implementation of the Organization’s peacekeeping operations. We share the view expressed in the concept note that we troop- and police-contributing countries are committed to deploying well-trained and -equipped uniformed personnel and fulfilling our collective commitment to continually preparing, training and equipping peacekeepers to an adequate standard, including through innovative approaches, such as the strengthening of triangular cooperation and joint deployments. My delegation recognizes that effective training and discipline before, during and after deployment is critical for the military and police forces to be able to provide a proportionate and effective response against the perpetrators of attacks on the civilian population as well as for the defence of personnel involved in peacekeeping missions. It is worth noting that the Secretariat has developed training guides and materials based on scenarios for the protection of civilians, among others, but is not equipped to assess whether the training has been effectively delivered to all deployed military and police personnel on the ground. We therefore reiterate our position that the Secretariat is primarily responsible for the development, implementation and validation of standards, as well as for training guidance for peacekeeping. We stress the importance of translating specialized training material on the protection of civilians and other subjects into the official languages of the Organization, which is essential for a proper understanding of the standards and requirements applicable to peacekeeping operations. While my delegation welcomes the emphasis placed on strengthening the performance and effectiveness of uniformed and civilian peacekeeping personnel, I note that it entails responsibilities for both the Security Council and the Secretariat. The Security Council has recognized that training is one of the critical factors for the effective implementation of all peacekeeping mandates. For our part, and in order to comply with its obligations and commitments in this area, Guatemala established its Regional Command for Peacekeeping Operations Training (CREOMPAZ) in July 2004. We have trained personnel composed of senior officers, junior officers and specialist troops, both nationally and from member countries of the Central American Armed Forces Conference and other friendly countries that have been selected to participate in various peacekeeping operations under the standards established by the Organization. CREOMPAZ is one of the most important training centres in Latin America, is part of the Latin American Association of Training Centres for Peace Operations and was certified by the United Nations in 2014. The high level of training provided has been demonstrated through the performance of our military observers and staff officers in numerous peacekeeping operations, as well as by the 19 Guatemalan special forces contingents deployed in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and previously in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. CREOMPAZ also offers advanced logistics courses for United Nations instructors, war correspondents and military experts in peace missions, as well as courses on gender perspectives in peace operations and civil-military operations. To date, it has trained 5,880 nationals and 1,652 foreigners, for a total of 7,532 people. In addition, it has trained 390 women. We recall that Guatemala has a military education system comprised of a group of educational institutions that impart knowledge in the military sciences and arts at various levels and modalities, as informed by the philosophy and doctrine of the Guatemalan Army, under the Higher Education Superior Command of the Guatemalan Army, with the aim of promoting and generating academic excellence and professional performance based on military science and doctrine, where we develop ethical and civilian competencies and values for due compliance with international laws and treaties, based on virtue and excellence. We would like to highlight the daily efforts of our Guatemalan personnel to fully carry out their mandates. In order to continue to do so effectively, peacekeeping operations must have financial and human resources. We reiterate that the mandates of the Council must be clear, realistic and achievable. Finally, my delegation reiterates its commitment to contributing properly trained and capable peacekeepers in order to maintain our participation in peacekeeping operations with high performance on the ground and without reservations. We also take this opportunity to reiterate our position that the mandates of the Security Council are bolstered and updated by the work of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C- 34), which includes a section entitled “Best practices and training” in its annual reports. The C-34 mandate updates the principle of ownership by troop- and police-contributing countries in the peacekeeping operations, thereby contributing to strengthening the performance and effectiveness of uniformed and civilian peacekeeping personnel.

I now give the floor to the representative of Morocco.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your country’s accession to the presidency of the Security Council for the month of May. I also thank you for having organized a meeting on this important topic. The presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs is a powerful testament to Indonesia’s critical role in the maintenance of international peace and security. I thank the Secretary-General for his statement, which reflects his firm commitment to peacekeeping. I also thank all previous speakers for their statements on the topic. This debate is indeed timely, being held at a moment marked by the momentum created by the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative. The resulting Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations recognizes the importance of training for performance, safety and security. I take this opportunity to commend the presidency for having proposed the presidential statement that was issued this morning (S/PRST/2019/4). Morocco welcomes this opportunity to share its views on the issue from the perspective of a troop-contributing country, and highlights the following points. First, we stress that the responsibility of providing quality training commensurate with United Nations standards lies with troop contributors. But like all elements that contribute to the success of peacekeeping operations, that responsibility is shared, particularly with the Secretariat, through the provision of modules and doctrines adapted to the realities of each mission. We welcome the Secretary-General’s commitment to that end. Secondly, it is recognized that well-trained troops are better able to defend themselves and their mandates, which impacts their performance. However, when we refer to the complex notion of performance, we should not focus exclusively on that of the troops. Performance depends on a multitude of factors, of which training, while important, is but one of many. Thirdly, in his report to the Special Committee on Peacekeeping, the Secretary-General informed the Members States about the Secretariat’s new training strategy, which focuses on three elements: developing and disseminating training standards, enhancing the capacity-building of troop- and police-contributing countries for quality training, and verifying that training is up to United Nations standards and that only properly trained personnel are deployed. Those commitments go hand in hand with those of the troop- contributing countries and will undoubtedly have a positive impact in the medium and long terms. Fourthly, the various existing processes, such as Peacekeeping Ministerials and summits of chiefs of staff and police have enabled Member States to announce substantial commitments in several areas, including training and capacity-building. Those many commitments must be managed appropriately and consistently, particularly through the establishment of a light coordination mechanism in order to bring together countries that offer training with those who need it. We welcome its imminent implementation in cooperation with the troop-contributing countries. Fifthly, as part of our collective commitment to promoting the participation of women in peacekeeping, we must ensure that they can benefit from all the necessary training. Morocco is convinced that it can make a meaningful contribution in the area of training and capacity-building. Through its participation in peacekeeping operations since the 1960s, my country has acquired a recognized and valued expertise in the area. In that regard, it was the first troop-contributing country deployed in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as in the Central African Republic. Moreover, through military cooperation agreements, Morocco is involved with more than 30 African countries in hosting all categories of soldiers pursuing training in every military specialty, including predeployment training. In the light of that experience, Morocco stands ready to respond positively to any request from another troop-contributing country. In addition to the principle of South-South cooperation, which remains a priority of its foreign policy, Morocco is convinced that troop- contributing countries in need of training or capacity- building will benefit from the peacekeeping experience of the country providing the training. Given current needs, as well as new methods of cooperation, the Kingdom of Morocco will shortly host two critical training courses in the medical and engineering areas within the framework of triangular partnerships. Those training courses will be mainly intended for Francophone countries, given that a glaring lack of training courses persists in such countries, although many missions are deployed in the French- speaking world. I stress the importance of triangular cooperation among troop-contributing countries, the Secretariat and the Security Council. We firmly believe that the strengthening of such cooperation will have a positive impact on all aspects of peacekeeping In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to pay special tribute to all civilian and military personnel deployed in United Nations missions, who often work in difficult conditions, while risking their lives.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

It is an honour for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to speak on behalf of the 120 States members of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries to address an issue of such great importance, given the fact that 88 per cent of the peacekeepers deployed on the ground come from non-aligned countries and that the 10 largest contributors of troops and military contingents — including Indonesia — are all members of our Movement. We commend Foreign Minister Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi and wish her delegation every success in guiding the work of the Security Council this month. Everything relating to the efficiency and effectiveness of peacekeeping operations is important, including the training and capacity-building of personnel deployed on the ground. We therefore emphasize the need for a partnership of shared responsibility between the Security Council and troop- and police-contributing countries, together with the Secretariat, in order to objectively evaluate and harness the potential of peacekeeping mandates and operations. We need a clear and viable mandate commensurate with the challenges on the ground. That will be possible if cooperation is continuous, meaningful and representative, including prior to the renewal of mandates. In April 2018, the Ministers reaffirmed their position on peacekeeping operations, which must be carried out in strict compliance with the Charter of the United Nations. At the same time, they stressed that respect for the principles of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of States, as well as that of non-interference in their internal affairs, are key to the promotion of international peace and security. In that regard, respect for the basic principles of peacekeeping — the consent of the parties, impartiality and the non-use of force, except in self-defence and in defence of the mandate — is necessary for the success of operations, in particular those with protection of civilians mandates. Peacekeeping operations must be supported by a participatory and well-planned political process, based on national ownership and supported by the international community, as well as with the consent of the parties concerned. In other words, peacekeeping operations must not be used as an alternative means to address the root causes of conflicts or to manage conflicts themselves. We welcome the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative and the Declaration of Shared Commitments on Peacekeeping Operations, which is aimed at ensuring that efforts are made to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations to address changing realities. The Movement also stands ready to work within the framework of the practical and comprehensive implementation of the Cairo Roadmap for Enhancing the Performance of Peacekeeping Operations from Mandate to Exit. We reaffirm our commitment to providing well-trained and well- equipped uniformed personnel, as well as to participating in a joint agreement to better prepare, train and equip such personnel through innovative approaches. We note that, although performance is related to the safety and security of peacekeepers, the performance of the mission as a whole, and not just the performance of troops, must be evaluated. We believe that well-defined, realistic and achievable mandates, political will, leadership, accountability, adequate human and financial resources, planning and operational guidelines, capacity-building and training are key to ensuring the effective implementation of mission mandates. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and security, we express our commitment to increasing the number of female civilian and uniformed personnel in peacekeeping operations, including in key positions, as well as to ensure women’s full and equal participation in every stage of the peace process. We are aware that the presence of women in military, police and civilian roles on the ground sends an important message to host communities with regard to gender equality and empowering women, which can help in preventing sexual exploitation and abuse. We also reaffirm our support for the Secretary-General’s policy of zero tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse, including the voluntary compact and the circle of leadership initiatives. In conclusion, the Movement pays tribute to the work of the men and women peacekeepers who carry out their work, oftentimes in adverse circumstances in armed conflicts, while risking their lives daily. Our sincere appreciation goes out to all of them, as well as to those who have lost their lives in the performance of their duties, defending the United Nations flag and the cause of peace.

I now give the floor to the representative of Romania.

I would first like to commend the Republic of Indonesia for holding this open debate, and I am confident that, under your presidency, Sir, the Security Council will continue to build on this important topic. Romania associates itself with the statement delivered by the observer of the European Union. I will now make a few remarks in my national capacity. Given the many challenges that our world is facing today, peacekeeping remains one of the most effective tools available to the United Nations, representing an important mandate of multilateralism and a symbol of international solidarity in the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security. Romania has a long-term commitment to the values and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and to the peace, development and justice nexus, which is also my country’s motto as a candidate for a non-permanent seat in the Security Council for the term 2020-2021. As a security provider, Romania attaches great importance to the effectiveness of the United Nations in the pursuit of peace and stability. Since 1991, when the first Romanian military peacekeepers were deployed in the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission, more than 12.500 Romanian military, police and close-protection personnel have served under the blue flag all over the world in 25 United Nations missions. Before deployment in United Nations missions, Romanian peacekeepers follow a special training course aimed at developing three main competencies: the ability to communicate in a professional context in either English or French, the ability to perform mission-related tasks depending on the mandate of the mission, and the ability to apply first-aid techniques. Romania has taken concrete measures in the training of foreign officers as well. One example is the international superior course performed at the Application School for Officers of the Romanian Gendarmerie, delivered in French, consistent with United Nations standards and incorporating the most recent version of the predeployment training materials. That course has trained more than 240 francophone officers from 28 countries from Europe, Africa and Asia. Also, the Romanian Protection and Guard Service is the only service in the world that provides close protection units, which ensure the protection of United Nations high-level officials. The officers follow, before deployment, the close protection course, provided under the cooperation between the Service and the United Nations Department of Safety and Security. Since its inception 10 years ago, more than 300 United Nations security officers from different countries have been trained at the centre’s premises in Romania. Romania contributes to the United Nations light coordination mechanism by creating a mobile training team with a focus on gender mainstreaming in security and defence. Furthermore, we highly appreciate the efforts carried out by the Secretary-General through his Action for Peacekeeping initiative, as it sets complementarity, synergy and coherence for the improved safety and security of peacekeepers, as well as better performance. Romania’s contribution has been emphasized in the development of the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping by providing national experts in doctrinal development to participate in online working groups in order to advance guidance materials on topics identified by United Nations field missions as priorities. In that respect, Romanian United Nations certified assessment instructors currently deployed in missions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan stand ready to participate in the selection of police officers from Member States to better match specific mission needs with adequate skills. Moreover, Romania also provides military experts in aviation and engineer units to participate in online working groups coordinated by the Office of Military Affairs in order to improve and update the specific United Nations military units’ manuals and guidelines issued by the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Operational Support, in support of peacekeeping capabilities readiness and predeployment training. My country is fully committed to resolution 2436 (2018), as we believe that the pursuit of improved performance must continue to guide our common efforts, which requires more training and education. We believe that whereas troop- and police-contributing countries remain responsible for the delivery of predeployment training according to United Nations standards, ensuring the safety and performance of military and police personnel in the field is a collective responsibility of Member States and the Secretariat.

I now give the floor to the representative of Thailand,

I am honoured to speak on behalf of the 10 States members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN would also like to align itself with the statement delivered by the representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement. I thank the presidency of Indonesia for convening this timely debate. Continued dialogue and debates on the subject are key to ensuring that the Action for Peacekeeping initiative will succeed after achieving near consensus on the shared commitments last September. I would also like to express my appreciation for the useful briefings delivered by the Secretary- General and others. United Nations peacekeeping is crucial to advancing peace and security, safeguarding human rights and laying the foundation for development. It would therefore be essential for all stakeholders to ensure optimum support for United Nations peacekeeping operations in today’s increasingly challenging operating environment. In the light of that, ASEAN would like to offer the following points. First, we need stronger partnerships and a more coordinated approach. We support strengthening partnerships at all levels. We further emphasize the importance of regional and subregional collaboration in training and capacity-building efforts to enhance missions’ peacekeeping competencies. For example, the ASEAN Defence Ministerial Meeting-Plus Experts’ Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations meets annually to discuss key challenges faced in peacekeeping and share ideas on how member States could strengthen mandate implementation in the field. We also have continued efforts among the ASEAN peace operations institutes to promote innovation, capacity-building and training collaboration for peacekeeping deployment. Secondly, the efficient and effective achievement of mandate outcomes depends on the quality and capabilities of peacekeepers. Ensuring that peacekeepers meet United Nations standards before and during deployment is everyone’s priority. ASEAN countries are hosting the inaugural Triangular Partnership Project training on a rotational basis for Asia-Pacific participants, with the aim of providing high-quality peacekeeping operational training. Moving ahead, Indonesia will replace Viet Nam in hosting the Triangular Partnership Project training in 2020. Collectively, we pool resources and expertise by effectively leveraging one another’s competencies, capabilities and shared experiences to achieve the desired Triangular Partnership Project training outcomes. There is no debate about women’s pre-eminent qualification for any aspect of peacekeeping operations, including in the highest posts. ASEAN therefore supports the Secretary-General’s call to increase the number of women in peacekeeping. Thirdly, the safety and security of our peacekeepers are a shared responsibility among us all. All peacekeeping stakeholders share and own the responsibility to ensure realistic mission mandates, adequate resourcing, effective training and efficient administration for the success of peacekeeping missions. Every stakeholder has its share of responsibility to ensure the safety of peacekeepers while undertaking their duties. The most direct and effective way is primarily to ensure training competency and the provision of adequate equipment to meet the demands of the mission. While reaffirming the basic principles of United Nations peacekeeping, it is of paramount importance to ensure the safety and security of peacekeepers on the ground so that they can perform competently and confidently. The Security Council can rest assured, ASEAN remains committed to strengthening the work and quality of its peacekeepers, and we will contribute effectively to the maintenance of international peace and security. I will now speak in my national capacity. First, Thailand is committed to ensuring that Thai peacekeepers are properly prepared, trained and equipped to meet the challenges that they will face in the field. In July, by working closely with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Thailand is preparing to organize the regional training course on the issue of children and armed conflict. Secondly, Thailand will continue to view peacekeeping through a comprehensive and people-centred lens. Peace is not a stand-alone agenda. It is co-dependent on sustainable development and respect for human rights. In conclusion, good planning, adequate resourcing and competent personnel are imperative to the success of any peacekeeping operation.

I now give the floor to the representative of Portugal.

Portugal aligns itself with the statement delivered by the observer of the European Union. I would like to add some remarks in my national capacity. Let me begin by congratulating you, Mr. President, for convening today’s open debate, which provides a valuable opportunity for the Security Council to take stock of resolution 2436 (2018) and address some of the commitments and pledges made during the recent United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial. Recent years have demonstrated that peacekeeping missions operate in an ever-more challenging security environment. However, that cannot weaken our collective responsibility to ensure that United Nations peacekeepers are deployed with the highest assurance of their safety in the fulfilment of their mandate. Unfortunately, the past 10 years of United Nations peacekeeping have been particularly tragic, as the number of fatalities have been exceedingly high. In that regard, efforts taken by the United Nations and its Member States throughout 2018 to improve the safety of peacekeepers led to a considerable reduction in the number of fatalities last year. We hope those efforts continue with the goal of achieving a zero-fatality rate. The Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative and the joint Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations are further evidence of our commitment to enhancing the impact of peacekeeping, which depends greatly on the training of peacekeepers. As a troop- and police-contributing country, Portugal sees training as a top priority due to its direct impact, not only on the safety of our peacekeepers and of the missions in which we participate, but also in the conduct and fulfilment of mandated tasks. That is why our military and police personnel meet the highest standards of training, which includes models in international humanitarian law and international human rights law and focuses on areas such as rules of engagement, the protection of civilians and sexual exploitation and abuse. We also invest in predeployment and in-mission training to ensure that our uniformed contingents have the tools to operate in their specific areas of deployment. I would like to draw special attention to the role of our female troops in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, where they perform combat roles in a very volatile and demanding security environment. We stand ready to share our experience and best practices as we find ways to increase the number and role of women in peacekeeping in the light of the women and peace and security agenda and the uniformed gender- parity strategy. In that context, Portugal is committed to working with the Department of Peace Operations on the possibility of organizing mixed training courses on capacity and leadership, with 50/50 gender parity attendance. Another positive experience that is worth mentioning here is our participation in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, together with Belgium, Denmark and Norway, where we have implemented the transport aviation unit rotational concept. It is a clear case of good cooperation among United Nations Members to articulate our needs and capacities in a structured and coordinated way. Looking ahead, we believe that the Santos Cruz report provides the most comprehensive set of recommendations to promote the training and, therefore, the safety and security of peacekeepers. One of its main virtues is identifying ways for the Secretariat and Member States to integrate policies in different areas, including medical services, improvised explosive devices and technological solutions. Such synergies could go a long way in improving the safety and performance of all peacekeepers. Finally, we are ready and willing to share our experience and lessons learned, namely, by assisting in the training of contingents from other troop- and police-contributing countries. In that regard, and particularly in the framework of our defence cooperation with members of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries, we have been exploring ways in which our collective accumulated knowledge can constitute a deliverable to improve the safety and performance of United Nations peacekeepers.

I now give the floor to the representative of Djibouti.

First of all, Djibouti congratulates the delegation of Indonesia, led by Her Excellency Mrs. Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, for convening today’s important event on the theme “Investing in peace: delivering quality training and capacity-building to improve the safety and security and performance of United Nations peacekeepers”. Since the beginning of his mandate, Secretary- General António Guterres has stressed the vital role of peacekeeping operations in the peace and security architecture. He has reiterated that it is a necessary investment, since countless lives have been saved over the past decade thanks to peacekeeping operations, while many war-torn families have been able to make a new start. Entire economies have been restored and nations rebuilt. While differences and nuances persist in the approach to strengthening peacekeeping operations, there is no doubt that we can welcome the strong consensus for increased investment in training and capacity-building. Similarly, it goes without saying that peacekeeping training is a strategic investment that enables United Nations military, police and civilian personnel to effectively carry out their increasingly challenging and, at times, dangerous missions. (spoke in English) Last year marked the seventieth anniversary of peacekeeping. It was a year during which several key milestones were achieved, such as the reform of the peace and security architecture, the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, which Djibouti signed, and the implementation of the action plan to improve the safety and security of United Nations peacekeepers. Obviously, there is a widening gap between United Nations peacekeeping doctrine and the reality on the ground. Peacekeeping operations often face a set of complex challenges. Those challenges are daunting in high-threat environments, where both the United Nations and regional peace operations are increasingly deployed. We therefore need to rededicate our efforts towards enhancing our policies and procedures to better adapt to the changing reality. (spoke in French) Allow me to underscore Djibouti’s commitment to the issue of peacekeeping operations, with a contribution of nearly 2,000 men in Somalia, a formed police unit in Darfur and women and men in other United Nations peacekeeping areas. Djibouti’s presence is a concrete manifestation of its commitment to promoting peace and security on the continent. I would like to focus my remarks to the Council today on the following four points. First, the United Nations and the international community must promote greater cooperation and strategic coherence in conflict prevention, in particular in Africa. A process for planning and defining the joint mandates of African Union peace operations authorized by the Security Council is essential to ensure the effectiveness of such operations. A greater number of real-time consultations with the African Union and with subregional organizations, including joint assessments and analyses, are required in order to recommend coherent options to decision-making bodies. Such regular interactions must be increasingly focused on emerging threats and ways to strengthen partnerships to better address them. Secondly, high quality training and capacity- building are today essential for improving the safety, security and performance of our peacekeepers on the ground. In that regard, under the auspices of His Excellency President Ismaël Omar Guelleh, Djibouti has pledged to continue to play an active role in United Nations and African Union peacekeeping operations by reaffirming its commitment to providing well- trained and well-equipped personnel and to support the development and implementation of peacekeeping training sessions. We made a commitment at the most recent United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial, held in New York, to providing a support centre for capacity- building for troop-contributing countries. Thirdly, out of a total of 16 United Nations peacekeeping operations, nine are deployed in Africa. Those missions account for more than 80 per cent of uniformed personnel and approved financial resources. Three of those missions are deployed in French-speaking areas. They account for more than half of current uniformed police and military service personnel. However, the contribution of French-speaking countries remains well below aspirations. It appears that French- speaking troop-contributing countries need to be better informed of the various issues related to contributions, in particular following the new reform. In that regard, my country intends to organize, together with the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Operational Support, in close collaboration with the Canadian, French and Irish Governments and with the support of the International Organization of la Francophonie, a two-day seminar on 24 and 25 June in Djibouti. This flexible coordination mechanism will raise the awareness of French-speaking troop- and police-contributing countries about the various issues relating to their contribution, including as it pertains to women, to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Fourthly, as we approach the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), we also reiterate the important role women can play in peacekeeping operations. We therefore welcome ongoing efforts to ensure the integration of a gender perspective in all peacekeeping operations. We have sufficiently emphasized the close link between logistical support and the health and safety of peacekeeping operations, hence the importance of adequate preparation of the operational planning for transport supply logistics, maritime and air services and medical logistic support. The tools exist, and the basic regulatory framework is also in place. It is up to Member States to ensure that units are structured, professional and truly operational before deploying them.

I now give the floor to the representative of Egypt.

At the outset, I should like to thank you, Mr. President, and to thank Her Excellency Mrs. Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, for convening today’s open debate of the Security Council on the theme “Investing in peace: improving safety and performance of United Nations peacekeepers.” This subject is becoming increasingly important, especially with the momentum created by the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative. The primary aim of the initiative is to enhance the effectiveness of the peacekeeping system in responding to changing operational environments by renewing the shared commitment of all actors, namely, Member States, the Security Council, host countries, troop- and police-contributing countries, regional partners and financial contributors. Undoubtedly, there is an important correlation between providing training and capacity-building for peacekeepers and their contribution to strengthening the security, safety and performance of peacekeepers. At the same time, we must recognize that training and capacity-building are just two enabling factors along with other factors. In addition to the operational aspects, there are political aspects that should be recognized, particularly that peacekeeping ultimately is a tool to support the political resolution of conflicts and that the enhanced political impact of peacekeeping operations can provide an environment that is conducive to sustainable peace and stability. The training and capacity-building of troops in the absence of clearly defined and verifiable mandates that include priorities and adequate resources will not produce the results we seek. That is why it is important to adopt a comprehensive approach to addressing the issue of the security, safety and performance of peacekeepers, one that addresses the relevant political and operational aspects, starting from designing the mandate pertaining to a peacekeeping operation, to its renewal and review and ending with an exit strategy that includes drawdown and the complete withdrawal of the operation. In that context, I would like to highlight that United Nations peacekeeping reform initiatives focus on enhancing capabilities despite the fact that many of those initiatives — such as former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s An Agenda for Peace, the Brahimi report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (see S/2000/809), the report of the High- level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (see S/2015446) and the Secretary-General’s own Action for Peacekeeping initiative — have all covered a wide array of peacekeeping dimensions that are not limited to the technical and operational aspects. They all stressed the importance of the need for a comprehensive political strategy and a clear vision to achieve sustainable peace. Egypt has always been committed to enhancing the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations and has always been one of the largest police- and troop-contributing countries. Egypt was also one of the first countries to support the initiative of the Secretary-General on the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Egypt has also actively contributed to implementing that initiative. My country organized the high-level regional meeting on enhancing the performance of peacekeeping operations that took place in Cairo in November 2018. That conference served as a forum for major African and Arab troop- contributing countries to exchange views on this very important issue. The conference also produced Cairo Roadmap for Enhancing the Performance of Peacekeeping Operations from Mandate to Exit, which represents a practical and balanced operational framework to implement the initiative of the Secretary-General. The Roadmap places peacekeeping operations in a comprehensive and shared framework that brings together all actors in an objective and balanced manner. It includes the Security Council, the Secretariat and Member States — whether they be financial contributors or troop- and police-contributing countries — as well as peacekeeping mission host countries. The first phases of mission design through to the fulfilment of the mission mandate are included. The Cairo Roadmap also provides certain practical recommendations for all actors concerning training and capacity building. Allow me to highlight some specific points. First, Member States and the Secretariat should operationalize the light coordination mechanism in order to assess training needs and adapt predeployment training to the contexts and the operational environments of the tasks to be performed. Secondly, Member States and the Secretariat should develop training materials for predeployment and in-mission training in order to raise awareness and learn from previous experiences. Thirdly, Member States should explore funding mechanisms to satisfy the specific peacekeeping training needs. The Secretariat should identify the financial gaps in the provision of training and capacity- building. During the Peacekeeping Ministerial held on 29 March, Egypt made pledges in the areas of training and capacity-building. The most important was its pledge to organize a train-the-trainers workshop on providing civilians with comprehensive protection, to be held at the Cairo International Centre for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding. Arrangements are currently under way with the Secretariat to hold the training workshop during the second half of this year, which will include the major troop-contributing countries. Egypt also committed to provide a training session for African military observers, as well as a train-the-trainers session on fighting sexual exploitation and abuse, in accordance with the treaties and policies adopted by the United Nations and the African Union. Those trainings would complement past trainings organized by the Cairo Centre this year, with the possibility of expanding the scope of that training in future. In addition to providing mobile training teams to provide in-mission training on the issues of fighting sexual exploitation and abuse, we are also committed, through Cairo Centre, to translate into Arabic training materials on the protection of civilians. In conclusion, I would like to thank the presidency once again for convening this important meeting at a highly critical and challenging time for peacekeeping operations. This requires all of us to work collectively to make peacekeeping operations more fit for their purpose and better able to achieve their desired goal.

I now give the floor to the representative of Ireland.

I wish to thank you, Mr. President, and your delegation for having convened today’s debate. Like Indonesia, my country has a long and proud tradition of peacekeeping. For any troop- contributing country, keeping those we deploy to the field safe will always be uppermost. Here I would like to pay tribute to all United Nations peacekeepers who have made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. Safety matters not just to our peacekeepers on the ground and to their Governments and loved ones, but also to the wider support for peacekeeping missions overall. That is why training and capacity-building is so important and why Ireland’s Defence Forces are deeply and increasingly engaged in this area. It is also why Ireland has so strongly supported the Secretary-General’s reform agenda for United Nations peacekeeping operations and the shared Action for Peacekeeping commitments. Training and capacity- building are keystones of that agenda, and driving implementation is clearly a shared responsibility. As we see it, the increasingly complex nature of conflicts inevitably brings greater risks to the safety and security of our brave peacekeepers. Whether it is ensuring that our peacekeepers are safer or that missions are more effective, the delivery of quality training and capacity-building is fundamental. Put simply, it is not really possible to have one without the other. I want to briefly highlight some of the ways in which my country, Ireland, is working to help build capacity and respond to specific training needs. Last month Ireland was pleased to host troops from our fellow troop contributors for a training course on the protection of civilians. The protection of civilians is not an abstract concept for us. Our experience in more than 60 years of unbroken participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations has taught the importance of peacekeepers engaging with communities on the ground, especially with women, children and vulnerable groups. We also want to ensure that our troops are equipped to address issues of sexual and gender-based violence. Ireland is providing customized training for peacekeeping contingents on the appropriate investigation of these issues. As co-chair of the United Nations military intelligence working group, Ireland is working to help build a better intelligence picture of peacekeeping environments, which can both help missions carry out their mandates more effectively and also, importantly, help to mitigate risks. Ireland is currently also partnering with the United Nations Mine Action Service to deliver two training programmes that will equip personnel to deal with explosive ordnance such as improvised explosive devices and anti-personnel mines. We see partnerships and sharing experiences as key to identifying and, importantly, to bridging capacity gaps. We want to ensure that the practical and administrative aspects of deploying peacekeepers do not act as a barrier to engagement. Ireland is working to prepare a seminar on this very topic in Djibouti in June. We must also work to maximize the opportunities for collaboration and partnership with regional organizations such as the African Union. In the context of the European Union, Ireland has put forward a “food for thought” paper, offering recommendations for partner troop-contributing countries to work together on deployment issues. As we all know, the participation of women in peacekeeping operations has a positive impact not just on a mission itself but also on the local population our peacekeepers serve. That is why Ireland works hard in support of the Secretary-General’s uniformed gender- parity strategy as we move to meet our own targets and increase the numbers of women peacekeepers at every level. We wish to use this opportunity to urge partners to nominate women to participate in Ireland’s predeployment training courses. Safety in the field means that as troop contributors, we, too, must hold our own peacekeepers to the highest standards and stamp out any conduct that harms the populations that we seek to protect. This we see as fundamental to the credibility and legitimacy of the Organization. The Prime Minister of Ireland, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, is proud to be part of the Secretary-General’s Circle of Leadership on the prevention of and response to sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations operations. Peacekeeping is a part of Ireland’s identity here at the United Nations. As our Taoiseach said here at the United Nations last year, we in Ireland are as proud of the blue beret as we are of the harp or the shamrock (see S/PV.8382). In my country we have a Gaelic saying, “Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine”, which I like to translate as: “We live in each other’s shelter, not in each other’s shadow”. This is the message that Irish peacekeepers live every day in the field, whether protecting civilian populations or helping to build the capacity of our fellow troop contributors. It is the philosophy we would respect and live out if lucky enough to be elected to sit at this table for 2021-2022.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Netherlands.

I would like to start by thanking the briefers for their insightful presentations. The Kingdom of the Netherlands aligns itself with the statement made by the observer of the European Union. Let me commend Indonesia for making peacekeeping, and especially the improvement of safety and security and performance, a priority during its presidency. This momentous debate allows us to exchange views on such important topics as training and capacity-building. I say nothing new when I state that adequate training improves the performance of peacekeepers and that, in combination with good equipment, it enhances safety and security and decreases the risk of fatalities. Both predeployment training and in-mission training of high quality are essential for the effective implementation of peacekeeping mandates. However, there is a world to be won if we manage to go from saying to doing. In addressing the challenges that training and capacity-building still face, I wish to focus on three elements: first, the Action for Peacekeeping framework; secondly, from commitments to action; and, thirdly, good practices. First, the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations under the Action for Peacekeeping initiative enjoys wide support among Member States. We are also very encouraged by the steps that the Secretariat is taking to advance the Action for Peacekeeping agenda and guide these efforts. The Declaration of Shared Commitments lays out what needs to be done, and we know that implementation is the hardest part of the improvement of United Nations peacekeeping. We, the Member States, as well as the Secretariat, must stay committed to and focused on the implementation of the Declaration, our blueprint for all further action. Secondly, today, more than a year after the launch of Action for Peacekeeping, we must stand together, focus on the tasks we have set ourselves and persevere to get the job done. If we want to strengthen our peacekeeping missions and improve the safety and security of our personnel, coordination is key. There are many initiatives, and there is a need for coherence and consistency. We therefore greatly value the coordinating role of the Secretariat in aligning all Action for Peacekeeping efforts and actions. We encourage the Secretariat to play a proactive role in identifying training needs and matching them with the pledging countries. We therefore welcome the development and operationalization of the light coordination mechanism to deconflict training and capacity-building programmes, which the Kingdom of the Netherlands financially supports. This brings me to my last point. One of the Action for Peacekeeping focus areas for the Kingdom of the Netherlands is training and performance. We provide numerous trainings, often together with other Member States, on a wide range of subjects, including peacekeeping military intelligence, protection of civilians, United Nations police and gender in operations, and we support the United Nations mobile training teams. Many initiatives have already been taken to improve training and capacity-building. Along the way, many lessons have been learned and improvements made. Let us use those good practices as examples to further enhance our actions and improve training and capacity-building. In conclusion, training and building the capacity of our Blue Helmets will improve their performance and enhance their safety and security, thereby reducing the risk of casualties. Let us build further on the good initiatives that are already under way.

I now give the floor to the representative of Ethiopia.

We would like to thank the Indonesian presidency for organizing this debate, and the Secretary-General, Lieutenant General Martins Filho and Mr. Holmberg for their comprehensive briefings. We also appreciate the presence of Her Excellency Mrs. Marsudi, Foreign Minister of Indonesia, who was with us here this morning. Peacekeeping has always been one of the essential tools available to the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security. That has been the case since the early 1950s, and peacekeeping missions have been remarkably successful in many ways. At the same time, in recent years much has changed. The objectives and functions of United Nations peacekeeping have changed considerably over the years, and that has of course had a significant impact on the training and support required for peacekeepers. United Nations missions can now be tasked with a much wider range of protection activities, which can include military activities such as ceasefires, withdrawals of foreign forces, cantonment and force disarmament and demobilization. They may also have to deal with national reconciliation, refugees, humanitarian relief and local administration as well as numerous other tasks. All of that means that the mandates for peacekeeping missions must be carefully and effectively defined, with clearly designated aims and proposed achievements. Investing in training and capacity-building activities is critical to improving both the safety and the performance of peacekeepers. Training and equipment determine performance. Ethiopia, for example, has well-established military and civilian training systems for peacekeeping deployment. We strongly believe that risks to the safety and security of peacekeepers can be controlled and managed though effective training and appropriate manoeuvres. That can also be applied to enhancing the capacity of peacekeepers to deal with threats to civilians, whether in or outside their operational areas. In addition to training and capacity-building for peacekeepers, providing peacekeeping missions with realistic mandates and sufficient resources remains critical to their success. All missions need a combination of uniformed and civilian peacekeeping personnel and the capacity to use equipment effectively to facilitate the implementation of the mandate. Another requirement is strong and competent leadership at all levels, along with proper coordination, and that must also include United Nations Headquarters. All of that is very necessary for adequate peacekeeping performance. In that connection, I want to emphasize that the Security Council, the troop- and police-contributing countries, Member States and the Secretariat must work together to provide the necessary conditions for the deployment of well-trained and properly equipped uniformed personnel. The commitment to supporting the effective development and provision of peacekeeping training must include meeting the requirements for preparing personnel prior to their deployment. On the one hand, United Nations peacekeeping missions are facing growing demands for greater professionalism and delivering ever-increasing results. That is simultaneously coupled with demands that they ensure cost-effectiveness and operate with fewer resources. That is simply not realistic. Mandates and resource requirements for missions must be balanced if they are to achieve their aims. It is only then that the Security Council, the Secretariat and contributing countries can assess and identify problems, address gaps and determine the actual impact of delivery and performance. The fact is that the capacity to finance peacekeeping and the associated political processes, and support it with the adequate provision of technological capabilities, can make the difference between success and failure for a mission. I want to emphasize that Ethiopia understands from extensive first-hand experience that peacekeeping operations must be provided with adequate financial and human resources for the effective and efficient discharge of their mandated tasks. That must include the provision of equipment and other assets. Gaps in capacity and capability are major impediments to creating peacekeeping operations that are fit for purpose. Innovative approaches such as triangular partnerships and co-deployments may help to change some of the mistaken views of the performance of troop- and police-contributing countries. For example, Ethiopia is working closely with various partners, including Indonesia, to prepare itself more effectively for current and future global and regional peace and security challenges. I want to underscore a comment about the challenges we are facing made in the report by former United Nations Force Commander Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz entitled Improving security of United Nations peacekeepers: “The blue helmet and the United Nations flag no longer offer ‘natural’ protection. Peacekeeping environments now feature armed groups, terrorists, organized crime, street gangs, criminal and political exploitation and other threats.” Ethiopia has seen that first-hand in the African Union Mission in Somalia, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur. In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that we believe that the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative will provide a new impetus for addressing the evolving challenges of peacekeeping more effectively. I can also assure the Council that Ethiopia is determined to remain at the forefront in providing support for peacekeeping, including in partnership with other troop- and police-contributing countries. It will continue to supply well-trained and -equipped uniformed personnel, with a greater participation of women. Ethiopia currently has 800 women peacekeepers deployed in various missions.

I now give the floor to the representative of Viet Nam.

At the outset, I would like to thank the Indonesian presidency for organizing this important debate. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to the Secretary-General and the other briefers for their valuable insights. My delegation aligns itself with the statements delivered by the representatives of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, and the Kingdom of Thailand, on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The emerging challenges in the world today require United Nations peacekeeping operations to be able to respond in a faster, more timely and more effective way to complex situations. At the same time, the safety and security of United Nations personnel must be improved. In that context, we share the view that adequate training and capacity-building for peacekeepers is increasingly important. Women peacekeepers must be given special attention in order to equip them with particular skill sets, capacities and roles. Training and capacity- building activities should start at the national level and be supported and coordinated regionally and globally. At the national level, Member States should ensure that personnel are properly trained and screened in order to enable them to best meet United Nations standards. Viet Nam has endorsed the Declaration of Shared Commitments on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and is ready to provide well-trained and -equipped personnel. The predeployment preparation and capacity-building of personnel are crucial to their safety, security and effective performance. This preparation must include adequate awareness pertinent to the deployment environment, such as historical, religious, ethnic, social, cultural and political particularities. In-mission training can provide updates later. The core predeployment training materials are extremely useful and should continue to be updated by the United Nations, with the assistance of relevant countries and regional and international organizations. At the regional level, collaboration in training and capacity-building can focus on the sharing of information and best practices. Together with other ASEAN countries, Viet Nam has been hosting the Triangular Partnership Project for the Rapid Deployment of Enabling Capabilities, organized by the Department of Operational Support of the United Nations Secretariat, with a view to strengthening the capacities of peacekeepers in the region and beyond. ASEAN countries contribute 5 per cent of United Nations peacekeepers. There is much to share and learn from each other, including through strengthened cooperation among peacekeeping training centres. At the global level, the United Nations system should continue to employ its whole-of-system approach towards training and capacity-building, especially through the partnership of shared responsibility between the Security Council, the troop- and police-contributing countries and the Secretariat. Training materials, standards and funding should be up-to-date and supportive of countries’ peacekeeping endeavours. At the same time, improving the security and safety of United Nations personnel must be the Organization’s top priority when working with all countries and partners. In conclusion, training and capacity-building are crucial for the success of peacekeeping operations, and Viet Nam affirms its commitment to working with the international community in this endeavour.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Republic of Korea.

With the growing responsibilities of United Nations peacekeeping operations in increasingly challenging environments today, the widely endorsed Action for Peacekeeping initiative recognizes the critical need to rethink the way mission mandates are crafted and implemented. Deploying better-trained and better- equipped personnel to the field is an important way of coping with these mounting challenges. In this regard, today’s open debate on enhancing the capabilities of peacekeeping operations is timely, and I would like to commend Indonesia for its leadership in moving this important issue forward. Today, I wish to make four points on training and capacity-building. First, to deliver customized quality training, training programmes should be designed on the basis of a thorough and in-depth analysis of both the mandate and local context where the mission is operating. The analysis could include the host country’s priorities; threats to the safety of peacekeepers; overall capability of the mission, especially the gaps; composition and capacity of troop-contributing countries (TCCs); and the command and control of the mission, to name just a few elements. To this end, it is critical to strengthen the capacity of the Secretariat for data collection and analysis, as well as planning and review. The Security Council can also engage with relevant stakeholders, including TCCs, missions and host Governments for this purpose. In this regard, we welcome the Secretariat’s efforts aimed at developing an integrated performance-policy framework and comprehensive performance-assessment system in accordance with resolution 2436 (2018). Better assessment of whole-of-mission performance and capabilities would help address capability gaps, propose corrective actions and direct resources where most needed. Secondly, the Secretariat and Member States should ensure that all personnel  — both civilian and military  — are properly trained and equipped. Some TCCs may have too-limited resources to adequately train and equip their peacekeepers. It is our collective responsibility to provide them with the necessary support in terms of training and capabilities, while holding them accountable to proper conduct and delivery of mandates. In this regard, we welcome the efforts of the Secretariat and Member States to provide the relevant support to TCCs through innovative approaches, including triangular partnerships and light coordination mechanisms. With more than 600 peacekeepers currently deployed in South Sudan and Lebanon, the Republic of Korea has been consistent in its efforts to properly train and equip its peacekeepers. And at the last Peacekeeping Ministerial, we pledged to host five United Nations training courses for other interested TCCs and provide all-terrain, mine-resistant vehicles to support peacekeeping operations in Africa. This year, we will also host a senior mission leaders course to train prospective leaders. Thirdly, peacekeepers should be better trained for engaging with the local community, and training guidelines should be produced for this purpose. Long guided by the conviction that genuine peace stems from the minds of people, Korean peacekeepers have been working hard to win the hearts and minds of local people. Such efforts have helped deliver on mandates, while enhancing their own security. Many of today’s conflicts escalate from local disputes over land, resources and authority over a district, and community engagement would help to address these local conflict dynamics. In this regard, mission personnel should be encouraged to possess in-depth knowledge of host societies, cultures and institutions, as well as a command of local languages. This resonates with the strong call of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations for a shift towards a people-centred approach for more effective peace operations. Finally, building the capacity of the host country’s security sector is as important as  — or even more important than — the training and capacity-building of United Nations peacekeepers. It would help accelerate the exit strategy of the mission, while preventing relapse into conflict after its withdrawal. Training and capacity-building are only a part of the puzzle to achieve safer and stronger peace operations. As set out in the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, they need to be looked together with other issues in a holistic manner. It is for this reason that we welcome the initiative of the Secretariat to create a web-tracking tool to monitor the progress of the implementation of the initiative. The Republic of Korea, together with Ethiopia and Norway, as chairs of the Group of Friends of Peace Operations, will continue to support the Secretariat’s efforts to translate the commitments of Member States pursuant to the Action for Peacekeeping initiative into concrete actions. In closing, I would like to assure the Security Council that, as the tenth largest financial contributor to the United Nations peacekeeping budget and the next host of the Peacekeeping Ministerial, the Republic of Korea remains committed to strengthening the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations.

I now give the floor to the representative of Malaysia.

At the outset, allow me to extend my delegation’s sincere appreciation to you, Mr. President, for Indonesia’s presiding over the Security Council this month. I would also extend our sincere gratitude for your having convened this timely and important debate. Malaysia aligns itself with the statements made by the representatives of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Thailand on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), respectively. Malaysia reaffirms its support for the central role played by the United Nations in the maintenance of international peace and security. We pay tribute to the sacrifices made by peacekeepers and to the devoted men and women who have served or are serving with unwavering dedication and great distinction in our endeavours to keep peace. As United Nations personnel are often deployed in volatile and perilous locations, they must have the right aptitude, strong survival skills and unquestionable competency if they are to be effective. This is important owing to the more comprehensive peacekeeping mandates we are seeing today, which encompass the necessity to protect civilians, address sexual violence and overcome challenges to human rights, inter alia. Malaysia therefore believes that a common training module prior to their deployment is vital for the safety and security of our peacekeepers. “People, machines and methods” are three elements embedded in Malaysian peacekeeper training and capacity-building. We believe the right people with the right machines coupled with the right methods allows United Nations peacekeepers to perform as demanded. “People” focuses on men and women’s ability to operate in a peacekeeping environment in which they are expected to fully engage in winning the heart and minds of the local population. “Machines” refers to a combination of capabilities and technology that will be employed during the conduct of operations to enable our peacekeepers to be more effective, alert, aware and efficient. Meanwhile, “methods” are doctrines, tactics, technique, procedure and skill sets that every peacekeeper must possess during his or her day-to-day undertaking. This element will be further reinforced during predeployment training and is specifically tailored to each mission’s requirements. In addition, Malaysia strongly believes that women peacekeepers play a vital role in the success of a mission. To demonstrate Malaysian women’s active participation in support of United Nations efforts in maintaining world peace and security, Malaysia is currently deploying four female military observers from the rank of Captain to Lieutenant Colonel; that figure is 75 per cent higher compared to the previous year. Further, Malaysia has also consistently deployed 40 female peacekeepers in our battalion in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Besides that, there are about 25 female operators who are currently being deployed at the Malaysian mission field hospital for humanitarian assistance in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. As all of us are well aware, each peacekeeping mission is unique and distinct. We need to take into account various challenges on the ground — such as the mission’s components, environment and coordination among various stakeholders, particularly the host nation  — in our collective efforts to ensure better peacekeeping operations. Malaysia also believes that it is important for us to strengthen cooperation between the United Nations peacekeeping operations with regional and subregional organizations for greater peacekeeping performance. To conclude, Malaysia reiterates its support for enhancing and strengthening United Nations peacekeeping missions. We reaffirm our full cooperation with all stakeholders because we sincerely believe that it is only by working together that we can ensure that all peacekeeping missions are fit-for- purpose and cost-effective.

I now give the floor to the representative of Nepal.

At the outset, Nepal congratulates and commends the Indonesian presidency for convening this important debate to accord peacekeeping the priority it deserves. With a contribution of over 140,000 troops and police since 1958, Nepal is proud of being a reliable and credible partner of the United Nations in its peacekeeping operations. However, this unwavering stand has its own cost. In its journey of peacekeeping, Nepal has lost 74 brave compatriots in the noble cause of international peace and stability. This loss always reminds us of the importance of training and capacity-building to ensuring the safety and security of the peacekeepers. In that context, my delegation wishes to make the following points concerning the safety, security and performance of United Nations peacekeepers: First, the mandates of peace missions should be clearly communicated to the peacekeepers on the ground and clear expectations of their performance must be spelled out. Second, the mandates and the peacekeepers’ capacities must be continuously aligned in view of evolving ground realities, with the Secretariat deploying mobile training support teams of experienced peacekeepers from troop- and police-contributing countries (TCCs/PCCs), as may be necessary, to provide training on the mission-specific mandates, rules of engagement and the use of force, among other things. Third, mission-specific performance indicators should be drawn in the light of the mandates, ground realities and timely availability of appropriate resources, as well as obstacles and shortfalls. Fourth, performance should be considered as a leadership responsibility and mission leadership should be held accountable for the whole-of-mission performance, as well as for monitoring the performance of the troops and police. Accordingly, the outstanding performance of the peacekeepers should be rewarded to boost their morale. Fifth, at no time should the absence of national caveats make any contingent prone to unreasonable tasking, deployments, rotations or scapegoating. Performance should be the primary basis for the rotation of contingents from different TCCs/PCCs. Sixth, the gender perspective should be incorporated into training, and specific training should be developed for female peacekeepers. Zero tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse should be strictly ensured. Seventh, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations should be revitalized to make it more effective in providing policy guidance to peace operations, considering current peacekeeping challenges. Similarly, the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Operational Support should assume an active role in ensuring common standards of the peacekeeping training provided by different national, regional and international training centres. In this regard, Nepal offers its national peacekeeping training centre to serve as a regional centre of excellence in its region. I would like to conclude by emphasizing the urgency of timely reimbursement to the TCCs/PCCs, without which capacity-building and improving the performance of peacekeepers would be affected in a highly adverse manner.

I now give the floor to the observer of the African Union. Ms. Mohammed: Allow me to start by congratulating you, Sir, for assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of May and for having taken the initiative of convening this important debate on investing in peacekeeping operations, training and capacity-building. In so doing, Indonesia is demonstrating its commitment to an improved and robust peacekeeping operation through the enhanced capacity and professionalism of peacekeepers. We highly appreciate the invaluable contribution of Indonesia to peacekeeping operations in Africa. Also, let me pay tribute to our personnel in green and blue helmets serving in African Union (AU) and United Nations peace operations under extreme circumstances to protect civilians and sustain peace. Certainly, today’s debate is timely, as it is taking place against the backdrop of an ever-increasing engagement on the ground by the United Nations, in close partnership with regional and subregional organizations, for conflict prevention, management and resolution. We cannot overstate the urgent need to look at the overall operations of peacekeepers and agree on practical measures to enhance their capacity and efficiency to address the challenges they face in maintaining peace, security and stability. Against this background, allow me to focus my intervention on the following three points. First, the African Union attaches great importance to this issue for multiple reasons. As Council members are aware, currently 7 out of the 14 peacekeeping missions are in Africa. Peacekeeping operations alone account for approximately 80 per cent of all authorized uniformed personnel approved for United Nations peacekeeping missions. As of 31 December 2018, African States represented 18 of the top 30 contributors of uniformed personnel in peacekeeping operations. Almost 50 per cent of all uniformed peacekeepers come from AU member States and, as of 31 December 2018, the African region contributed 63.4 per cent of women in United Nations peacekeeping. Therefore, Africa deserves to be supported by all means to address the gaps that need to be overcome in peacekeeping, as well as the difficulties our peacekeepers face every day while they navigate the difficult terrain of their mandates, less equipped and with only their determination. Our peacekeepers deserve to be better enabled and qualified to face their difficult assignments and discharge their responsibilities effectively. Secondly, the AU has exerted serious efforts in enhancing the performance and effectiveness of our peace support operations, including our approaches in ensuring the protection of civilians. AU peace support operations have been entrusted with mandates that include the protection of civilians and engagement in combat operations to ensure that those mandates meet the type of robust and comprehensive responses required to address conflict challenges  — in line with AU doctrine  — and noting the volatile contexts and asymmetric threats that peace support operations personnel are exposed to. The African Union has been consistent in striving to guarantee joint training and human rights standards in its peace support operations in line with the AU’s compliance and accountability framework for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and conduct and discipline. In partnership with the United Nations, the African Union adopted two important policies in November 2018, on conduct and discipline in peace support operations; and on the prevention of, and response to, sexual exploitation and abuse in peace support operations. Both policies aim to promote the professional conduct of AU peace support operations personnel and reinforce the AU’s comprehensive efforts to protect civilians. They also reinforce the Peace and Security Council’s directive that the mandates of all peace support operations should include the protection of civilians. In addition, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union issued a directive in May 2018 that the Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians be incorporated into the African Union’s work on the protection of civilians and implemented within the AU’s broader compliance and accountability framework. That directive will enable the African Union to ensure a level of comprehensiveness that will continue to help us to guarantee performance and effectiveness. My third, and final, point is that we would like to underscore the important elements that, in our view, can boost the performance of our peacekeepers to effectively protect civilians and discharge their other important duties. First, troop- and police-contributing countries should provide the best of their personnel and capabilities for peace operations. Secondly, mandating authorities like the United Nations and the African Union should provide realistic mandates and all the prerequisite means to enable our missions to effectively implement their tasks and protect civilians, while assisting countries to move from conflict to sustainable peace, and thereafter to engage in exit strategies. That brings me to the issue of financing and the need for the Security Council to respond positively to the AU’s long-standing and legitimate calls for access to United Nations assessed contributions to fund African peace support operations. We remain convinced that, by providing responses to multiple threats to peace and security, those operations are doing so on behalf of the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, which bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. We call on the Security Council to take a fresh look at that issue in view of the ongoing efforts by the African Union, including the recent operationalization of the Peace Fund. In conclusion, we recognize that neither the United Nations nor the AU alone will be able to guarantee the highest level of performance and effectiveness of AU peacekeepers. That is why we embrace the Secretary- General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative and the call for an enhanced strategic partnership between the African Union and the United Nations to provide the means for effective performance, which, together with the support of our member States, should give us the optimal ability to implement required mandates and tasks.

I now give the floor to the representative of Cambodia.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate Indonesia on assuming the presidency of the Security Council this month and for organizing this very important open debate. I would like to thank the Secretary-General and the other briefers for their informative and highly pertinent remarks. My delegation associates itself with statements delivered by the representative of Venezuela on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries and by the representative of Thailand on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Sustaining global peace requires a focused, well- coordinated approach, particularly as it relates to post-conflict situations. Having been the recipient of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, Cambodia knows very well the difficulties that accompany a country’s transition from conflict to a stable and prosperous society. Cambodia remains committed to international peace and security through its participation in United Nations peacekeeping efforts. Over the past decade, Cambodia has contributed thousands of Blue Helmets to United Nations peacekeeping operations worldwide. We have deployed our peacekeepers in different fields, ranging from engineering, demining and military police to military observers and military officers. Our peacekeepers have served across the world in some of the most demanding situations, including the Central African Republic, Syria, the Sudan, South Sudan, Lebanon, Mali and Chad, among other missions. Cambodian peacekeepers do their utmost to safeguard and protect local populations. Peacekeeping duties demand the highest sacrifice from those who serve. Regrettably, nine Cambodian peacekeepers have lost their lives. In that connection, greater efforts must be made to prevent peacekeeper casualties, including by providing increased training. It is impossible to ignore that, as peacekeeping operations are becoming increasingly complex, peacekeepers are finding themselves in challenging situations, in which they lack sufficient logistical support and financing. To alleviate the risks posed to our peacekeepers and ensure the effectiveness of operations, peacekeeping missions must be accorded the necessary resources and provided with access to modern technology and information. Providing peacekeepers with adequate resources, including through reliable funding, is of paramount importance. For peacekeeping missions to be successful, all peacekeeping operations must have access to predictable, steady financing streams. The human and economic cost of conflict is enormous. After all, preserving peace for the future is a much better deal than resolving conflicts without end. To ensure the safety and security of United Nations personnel and the people they serve, United Nations peacekeepers must be adequately trained. Cambodia fully supports the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative and, having endorsed the Declaration of Shared Commitments, is fully engaged in the predeployment training of its personnel, which focuses on developing the capabilities that are required for them to effectively perform their duties. My delegation considers the training of peacekeepers as an integral part of mission success and an investment in learning, improved performance and the effective fulfilment of mandates. Cambodia has two predeployment training facilities that are supported by the United Nations, the United States, France, China, Japan and India. I would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to those countries for their valuable support. In that context, senior management training should be strengthened to ensure that peacekeepers are commanded by capable and competent leaders. Such training should cover understanding mission mandates, the United Nations system, international humanitarian law, dispute resolution skills and strategic analysis, particularly as it relates to challenges within specific missions. Peacekeepers should be provided with improved training on communications, including courses in English and French, as well as training on negotiation and cultural sensitivity. The integration of training efforts should be encouraged, while retaining a focus on clearly defined strategic priorities in peacekeeping operations. Such synergies will enhance learning methods and promote the knowledge of those who serve. In conclusion, Cambodia is committed to working with the United Nations and its partners to ensure that peacekeepers are provided with critical training and development resources to enable them to perform their tasks successfully in the future. Consistent financing and capacity-building resources will promote further positive change in peacekeeping operations, ensuring the safety and security of those who serve and the people they protect.

I now give the floor to the representative of Australia.

I would like to begin by thanking Indonesia and Foreign Minister Marsudi for the choice of the topic for this open debate, which enables all of us to focus in a concrete way on achieving the peace that we seek. As the demands of modern peacekeeping grow more complex, training and capacity-building must keep pace with emerging requirements. Effective partnerships, improved information-sharing and reporting mechanisms are the foundation for better peacekeeping performance. Peacekeeping is not a static phenomenon. Today’s missions operate in a very different environment from 1948, when Australia first deployed to support a United Nations peace operation. Australia welcomes progress to implement the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, which we see as a blueprint for enhancing performance, safety and security. We must continue momentum and translate rhetoric into action. Sustaining peace demands innovation. Today, successful mandate implementation requires a continual evolution of training and significant improvements to joint planning and analysis. On partnerships, Australia recognizes their power to improve peacekeeping capability and performance. Strong partnerships at the bilateral, multilateral and regional levels provide the best opportunity to address key training and capability gaps. Since 1993, Australia has deployed instructors to support the development of peacekeeping capabilities in other countries. Mobile training teams are a cost- effective way of sharing the experiences of troop- contributing countries and building capacity. The Australian Defence Force Peace Operations Training Centre also provides high-quality multinational training. Australia has sought to increase the participation of women in peacekeeping, and we fund women from a range of countries to attend peacekeeping training courses. Australia’s peacekeeping cooperation with Viet Nam is one example of an effective partnership in practice. Together, we have worked to improve language capabilities to prepare medical personnel to deploy to South Sudan. Our emerging partnership with Fiji and New Zealand will also aim to strengthen capability through training and shared expertise. Improved information-sharing is also critical to allocate resources effectively against the needs of troop-contributing countries. The Secretariat’s light coordination mechanism is a welcome step towards better coherence of training and capacity-building efforts. Improved access to the latest developments in peacekeeping policy and lessons learned will allow Member States to provide more targeted and mission-specific training. Australia sees great potential in online training as a mechanism to bring predeployment training to a wider audience. We have supported the Peace Operations Training Institute’s development of an e-learning programme, which we consider to be a valuable example. Finally, Australia supports efforts to embed an integrated performance framework across missions and enhance data-driven reporting. A clear understanding of mission effectiveness will highlight where training efforts can be focused to improve performance. Evidence shows that well-trained and well-equipped personnel give peacekeeping missions a greater chance to succeed. Australia looks to all Member States and the United Nations system to work together to ensure that training and capacity-building efforts meet the demands of modern peacekeeping.

I now give the floor to the representative of Bangladesh.

I would like to begin by welcoming the Security Council presidency of Indonesia for this month and thank the Indonesian leadership for arranging this timely debate and for the adoption of presidential statement S/PRST/2019/4 earlier this morning. Peacekeeping has been a flagship undertaking of the United Nations over the past 70 years and remains one of its most visible contributions to multilateralism. In the maintenance of international peace and security, we take pride in our modest contribution of troops and police to United Nations peacekeeping missions. We currently have over 6,700 peacekeepers in 10 different peacekeeping missions around the world. We are also gradually increasing our female peacekeepers, in keeping with our commitment to the United Nations. Since 2010, we have been sending 150 to 200 female peacekeepers every year. So far, Bangladesh has deployed over 1,600 female peacekeepers, and in 2018 Bangladesh stood fifth among the troop-contributing countries (TCCs) and the police-contributing countries (PCCs) in contributing female peacekeepers. We currently send female peacekeepers with all contingents. There have been several efforts in recent years to strengthen United Nations peace operations. Of late, the United Nations has unfolded many initiatives to face the many challenges by which that multilateral endeavour is beset. Bangladesh reiterates its strong support for such efforts, including the Secretary-General’s initiatives on peace and security reforms, the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, the Department of Peace Operation’s (DPO) uniformed gender-parity strategy and the shared commitments laid out by the Council. Bangladesh has always strongly supported the Secretary-General’s zero-tolerance policy against all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. Our Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, is a member of the Circle of Leadership on the prevention of and response to sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. We are also party to the Secretary-General’s voluntary compact to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse. Peace support operation training is an evolving concept. Every field situation is unique, as are the mandates and dynamics of conflict. In Bangladesh, while setting our training module, we follow the guidelines of DPO. We provide generic training to our officers in their capacities both as observers and as contingent members. In addition, mindful of context-specific requirements, we provide tailor-made predeployment training, including language courses. Those are useful tools in winning the hearts and minds of local populations. We train our officers and men in a way that, in addition to their security duties, they must be able to understand the role of other agencies involved in the mission and support the political objective of the mandate. We receive requests from the United Nations for peacekeepers to work in different appointments and responsibilities. Keeping that in view, we train our peacekeepers to suit any particular United Nations peace-support environment. I would now like to highlight three aspects of training and capacity-building. First, on priorities for training needs, Bangladesh organizes contingents for deployment based on the United Nations format for 6 months. During that time, contingents continue rigorous training, as per United Nations-specified training curriculum. At the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operations and Training, the training curriculum consists of predeployment training, the potential observers and staff officers course, the warrant officers and non-commissioned officers peace support operations course and the contingent members course. The training curriculum is regularly reviewed, as per the latest guidelines and policies of the Integrated Training Service of DPO. The Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operations and Training is also working to incorporate the newly formulated United Nations Military Units Manuals. We are also aware of the barriers for women, including sexual exploitation and abuse. We have therefore made awareness of sexual abuse and exploitation cases an important component of our predeployment training. Considering the improvised explosive device (IED) threat, Bangladesh also conducts IED training. We are also providing training to our peacekeepers to handle modern equipment, such as mine-protected armoured personal carriers and medical-related training. Secondly, partnerships are critical to the success of United Nations peace operations. In many missions, the United Nations continues to work alongside regional organizations and bilateral partners for the delivery of mission mandates. That is also true for training and capacity-building initiatives. We believe that training is not only an important component of peacekeeping, but a shared responsibility as well. On our part, last year Bangladesh and Germany together conducted a training-of-trainers course on IEDs. In December 2018, Bangladesh also hosted a seminar on achieving operational readiness, in collaboration with the United States Pacific Command and DPO for the TCCs from the Asia-Pacific region. The aim of the seminar was to achieve and enhance operational readiness in peacekeeping operations. Bangladesh will also conduct a comprehensive protection of civilian’s course from 9 to 20 June in at the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operations and Training, under the supervision of the Integrated Training Services of the United Nations Headquarters, in which officers from 14 countries are expected to participate. Bangladesh is committed to continuing such collaborations. Thirdly, on practices, despite our continuous efforts to develop troop capacities, there remain training gaps in the areas of human rights, the safety and protection of troops and civilians and gender violence. Sharing relevant experiences from other missions and the recommendations of senior mission leaders is therefore very important. There is also need for more data and understanding on why instances of sexual exploitation and abuse are occurring and whether the revision of existing guidelines is required. Evidence-based reports are also required to see whether any particular mitigation measure can be put in place. Training United Nations peacekeepers remains a complex endeavour, as peacekeepers work in a foreign country with a complex cultural and political situation. Such training therefore requires cooperation and partnerships among a range of stakeholders of various standards. While the United Nations takes the lead in instituting guiding principles for training and capacity- building, it is the responsibility of the individual TCCs to prepare their peacekeepers for deployment in the field. Strong collaboration is therefore a must among the Secretariat, Member States, TCCs, PCCs and the Security Council to ensure the comprehensive management of training needs.

I now give the floor to the representative of Senegal.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate Indonesia on its accession to the presidency of the Security Council for this month and its excellent initiative of convening this open debate, which allows us to discuss the central issue of the training and capacity-building of staff within peace operations. Allow me also to acknowledge the brilliant briefings delivered this morning by Secretary-General António Guterres, Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho, Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat. Today’s open debate is in line with our common desire, reaffirmed unequivocally in support of the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, to place the performance of peace operations at the centre of our concerns. That very commendable ambition necessarily reflects the need to dedicate to such operations well-trained and well-equipped troops, with sufficient training in the basics of humanitarian law. Today’s exercise is all the more timely as Blue Helmets now work in very complex security environments, marked by an unprecedented level of violence, exacerbated by asymmetrical threats, endangering their own lives and those of the people they are mandated to protect. Only with high-quality operational readiness can peacekeepers properly address such vulnerabilities and maintain moral authority over negative forces. As a major contributor country, Senegal has made a paradigm of that priority. I would like to briefly share some of its good practices in that regard. First of all, the training of units in Senegal is aimed at meeting the requirements for permanence, comprehensiveness and adaptation to threats. The methods are regularly evaluated and updated. Indeed, the operational conditioning of units is systematic. At the individual level, it allows for the maintenance and consolidation of the specific capacities of core activities. Collectively, the intrinsic value of the units is assessed annually on the basis of strictly objective criteria, taking into account, among other things, the cohesion of units, their ability to serve, maintain their equipment and build resilience to adversity. For peace operations, therefore, regardless of the environment or context of engagement, Senegal always has a wide range of eligible units. Those selected to form contingents are trained for at least four months in one of the five tactical training centres located in Senegal, which best reflects the conditions in the deployment mission. The preparation of contingents is completed with modules familiarizing them with the United Nations standards of conduct, cross-cutting issues related to gender, sexual abuse and exploitation, the customs and habits of the host country and so on. Senegal’s tactical training centres allow units to be trained for various types of environments. The infrastructure currently available is sufficient for meeting the needs of our military and police units alone. However, an ambitious project is under way to increase their number, which could eventually open them up to friendly contributing countries in our subregion or elsewhere. Lastly, the training modules are managed in a dynamic process, as they are constantly enriched by feedback from returning and readjusted contingents. We take this opportunity to thank the Policy, Evaluation and Training Division of the Department of Peace Operations and all partners who work tirelessly to build capacity through the many training programmes they offer to contributing countries. However, while the challenge of performance-oriented training remains well understood, the Department of Peace Operations nonetheless loses a key lever for quality control of the troops at its disposal, by leaving the entire training and certification process for contingents to contributing countries. The Department of Peace Operations may be aware of that shortcoming as it now requires, prior to deployment, a written document in which contributing countries certify that all members of the contingent have received adequate training and that none are subject to allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation or ongoing legal proceedings. However, that formal document commits the contributing countries only in theory, as it neither guarantees the contingent’s ability to cope on the ground nor provides assurance that its members will comply with the United Nations standards of conduct during their stay in the mission. To ensure better quality control of the operational preparedness of contingents, it is essential that the Department of Peace Operations be more involved in the process by agreeing with the contributing countries on the various training programmes, taking into account the specificities of the area concerned and the prerequisites for the unit and by ultimately confirming the suitability of the contingent through a systematic predeployment validation inspection, on the basis of criteria agreed with the Member States. In the same vein, we must consider the use of modern technologies, where necessary. The experiences of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic have shown that the responsible use of such tools has a positive impact. For its part, Senegal remains ready to share its unique experience in the area of peacekeeping, including through South-South and triangular cooperation. It remains convinced that it is also essential to increase the participation of women in peacekeeping operations, in accordance with resolution 1325 (2000). In addition, taking into account the growing commitment and quality of French-speaking countries in peacekeeping operations, as well as the establishment of such missions in that group of countries, primarily in Africa, my delegation reaffirms the need to promote multilingualism in the context of the missions. In conclusion, as a major troop- and police-contributing country, Senegal welcomes the continued concern among actors, including the Council, in the spirit of triangular dialogue, to make peacekeeping operations more effective and capable of meeting pressing current and future needs and challenges.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Philippines.

Peacekeeping remains the flagship agenda of the United Nations enterprise. Peacekeeping operations and missions come with high expectations. They have long been the signature and most popular image of the United Nations. The missions’ ability to protect not only civilians but also United Nations peacekeepers and personnel is the standard by which United Nations peacekeeping is measured, affecting its legitimacy and credibility. Even as the greatest credit to the United Nations has come from peacekeeping, its biggest and deepest stains have come from failing in the same. Peacekeeping should not decide political outcomes, but it does commit to establishing humane conditions where they have ceased to exist. While a mission may produce a political outcome, the containment or even defeat of the murdering elements is acceptable because it stops the carnage and rapine. Life and human dignity are United Nations peacekeeping’s absolutes. Today’s open debate, under the presidency of Indonesia, is therefore a timely follow-up event after the successful 2019 United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial a month ago. Continued dialogue and debates on the subject are key to ensuring that the Action for Peacekeeping initiative will succeed after achieving near consensus on 24 mutual commitments last September. The Philippines welcomes the efforts of the Department of Peace Operations to establish clear performance standards and assessments based on regular evaluations of military units, including on command and control, the protection of civilians, conduct, discipline and training. They enable an objective assessment of whole-of-mission performance  — civilian and uniformed components, staff and leadership — through data collection and analysis. The Philippines reaffirms that peacekeeping operations must be measured by the mandate to protect civilians as the core criterion of success, with child protection and combating sexual exploitation and abuse as key elements. Predeployment training should be tailored to respond to particular country-specific or context-specific challenges of protecting civilians with clear definitions of the responsibilities, opportunities and constraints that will be faced by peacekeepers in the field. But again, the safety of civilians is an absolute and in no case shall it be sacrificed for any other consideration. Our Department of National Defence takes a strict approach to cases of misconduct. The Armed Forces of the Philippines makes sure that all its peacekeeping contingents are deeply instilled with guidelines for proper behaviour and conduct in the United Nations mission area. As part of its predeployment and in-mission training of personnel, the Armed Forces of the Philippines imposes the most stringent measures in the selection of candidates and implements a system of rewards and penalties for well-performing and misbehaving personnel. The Philippines wishes to submit the following. First, the Philippines encourages Member States to host centres of excellence in each region to support the trainers in delivering training packages to troop- and police-contributing countries, consistent with United Nations standards and approaches. Secondly, the Philippines believes that threat analyses and data should be shared with other missions to improve the safety and security of peacekeeping personnel and, foremost, that of civilians. Thirdly, on the ability and authority of the Force Commander to appropriately respond to emergency situations on the ground without the need to consult with mission legal advisers, the Philippines supports the call to limit national caveats from host States addressed to Force Commanders overseeing peacekeeping missions. Fourthly, the Philippines supports the increased deployment of women United Nations peacekeepers, including in the highest posts. There is no debate about their pre-eminent qualification for any aspect of peacekeeping operations. The Philippines has never failed in its peacekeeping commitments and commits to a larger presence in United Nations peacekeeping operations.