Hanoi (VNA) –Vietnam’s Engineering Unit Rotation 1 and Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 4departed for the UN peacekeeping missions in Abyei and South Sudan on April 27.

This is the first timeVietnam has deployed an engineering unit to a UN peacekeeping mission, and itis also the Vietnamese unit with the largest number of personnel joining UNpeacekeeping operations so far.

Talking to Vietnam NewsAgency, Major General Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnam Department ofPeacekeeping Operations, said taking part in UN peacekeeping operations is amajor policy of the Politburo and the Party Central Committee so as to promotethe country’s integration into the world at a higher level.

It is an honour of theVietnam People’s Army to be the first force to send personnel to thisinternational mission. Over the last eight years, its officers have proved themselvescompletely capable of fulfilling tasks at the request of the UN, and they havereceived very high evaluation from UN leaders.

He noted they have also beenhighly valued and admired by international friends as well as people in thehost countries thanks to their successful implementation of many activities,especially the mass mobilisation activities that had never been carried out inthe missions in the past.

Aside from Level-2 FieldHospital Rotation 4, Vietnam also deployed its first engineering unit with 184members this time, he said, expressing his belief that with the experiences obtainedover the last eight years, the engineering unit will be successful at the UNInterim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

Phung noted earlier, a UNdelegation had come to Vietnam to survey and decided to choose the country's engineering unit outof 15 candidates as they realised the capacity of Vietnamese engineers.

Deploying a big unit likethis 184-strong engineering one is a big challenge since it is completelydifferent from the previous times when Vietnam sent individuals or small unitslike Level-2 field hospitals to peacekeeping operations.

However, thanks to thorough preparationsmade in five years, the Vietnamese side was assessed as the most outstandingamong the 15 units wishing to join UNISFA.

The official said he believeswith thorough preparations in multiple aspects, the engineering unit of Vietnamwill successfully perform the duties assigned by the Party, State, CentralMilitary Commission, and Ministry of National Defence while meeting the UN’sexpectations./.