UN keen to discuss new peacekeeping role for Japan

March 25, 2017

New York- Herve Ladsous, UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, expressed his eagerness on Friday to discuss a new peacekeeping role for Japan.

“We have constant needs” for peacekeeping personnel, Ladsous told a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York. “We will be...in touch with our Japanese colleagues to discuss that.”

He made the remarks after Japan ordered the Ground Self-Defense Force earlier in the day to withdraw its engineering troops from a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

Ladsous said he “cannot express a joy” over Japan’s decision to pull the GSDF troops out of South Sudan.

He signaled his hopes for Japanese cooperation in UN-led peacekeeping operations, noting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy of continuing to engage in peacekeeping operations. “We are ready to discuss” with Japan, he said.

Regarding the planned deployment of a regional protection force in South Sudan, Ladsous said, “The vanguard element of the force will be deployed between the end of April and the beginning of May.”

Last summer, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on the dispatch of the regional protection force to South Sudan, but the deployment has yet to be realized. Jiji Press