The 60th anniversary of UN peacekeeping operations is a milestone in maintaining international peace, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana said here Thursday.
"Today we mark the 60th anniversary of UN peacekeeping operations. This is a milestone for international efforts to promote peace and protect the vulnerable," he said in a statement issued on the occasion.
Around the world, "UN officials -- both soldiers and civilians -- are taking risks for peace and are enabling war-torn societies to overcome conflicts and return to the path of reconciliation and reconstruction," Solana said.
"UN peacekeeping operations have come a long way, in both conceptual and operational terms, since the first mission was launched in 1948," he said. "From purely military missions dealing with wars between states, they have become multidimensional, dealing mainly with intrastate conflicts."
Though some 100,000 people are currently involved in 20 operations around the world with an annual budget of 8 billion U.S. dollars, the demand for UN peacekeeping engagement "continues to grow".
Solana said that peacekeeping operations "are an essential part of the policy mix, providing the space in which a fragile peace can take hold and become self-sustaining."
During the past 60 years, "there is much that the UN has achieved in the area of peacekeeping," the EU official said.
"But at the same time, we should realize that there is even more work still to be done," he added.
On the EU's role in this respect, Solana said that the bloc "has formed a partnership with the UN to work together in the area of crisis management", and cited EU missions in the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The first UN peacekeeping mission was established in 1948, when the Security Council authorized the deployment of UN military observers to the Middle East to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Since then, there have been some 63 UN peacekeeping operations around the world.
Source:Xinhua
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