430 servicemen of Kazakhstan will be sent as peacekeepers to participate in UN missions, El.kz reports.
The purpose of the participation of the national armed forces is practical military training. Kazakhstan's peacekeeping contingent is planned to be sent to such countries as Western Sahara, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Mali and Lebanon.
Earlier, such a proposal was made by the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
"Until now, servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan were sent to UN peacekeeping missions to fulfill international obligations to maintain peace and security in accordance with the resolutions of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Since 2014, 45 Kazakhstani officers have participated in UN missions in Western Sahara, Ivory Coast and Lebanon as military observers and staff officers. Since 2018, 520 Kazakhstani servicemen have been in the mission of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon as part of a peacekeeping unit. To date, 6 and 9 Kazakhstani servicemen serve in the UN missions in Western Sahara and the Interim Forces in Lebanon. The UN leadership praised the level of training of our servicemen and expressed readiness to support the increase in the number of Kazakhstani peacekeepers in UN missions," Defense Minister Ruslan Zhaksylykov said.
According to him, sending a contingent to UN peacekeeping operations not only makes a significant contribution to strengthening global security, but also contributes to increasing the authority and role of Kazakhstan in the international arena.
"Kazakhstan is ready to allocate both individual servicemen as staff officers and military observers, and specialized units most in demand in UN missions - infantry, medical, intelligence, engineering units and military police units. The best practices gained will be used to improve the combat training of our armed forces and develop proposals for their further development. Against the backdrop of the reduction of peacekeeping missions, competition between peacekeeping contributors is growing. Therefore, the specific unit of the UN mission and the timing of deployment will be determined based on the results of the upcoming work of the UN Secretariat. An appropriate regulatory and legal framework will be created for each individual peacekeeping operation," the Head of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan said.
The Parliament of Kazakhstan approved this proposal.