Vietnam army officials join UN peacekeeping missions for 1st time Lieutenant Colonel Tran Nam Ngan (L) is discussing with a staff member of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center. Tuoi Tre Lieutenant Colonel Mac Duc Trong (R) during a working trip abroad. Tuoi Tre Vietnam has sent officials to take part in international peacekeeping missions of the United Nations for the first time and their first tasks to be deployed in South Sudan of Africa in June. The first two Vietnamese officials are from the army and will take over the communications of the UN Operations. They left for their UN peacekeeping mission in the African country on Tuesday. Earlier, Vietnam had pledged to join anti-personnel missions such as military medical, engineering, communications, and observation units of peacekeeping forces, according to Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of National Defense, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh. On May 27, Vietnam launched its own Peacekeeping Center based in Hanoi to mark the active involvement of the Southeast Asian nation in joining hands with the UN. Vietnamese defense minister Phung Quang Thanh announced the decisions of the UN and Vietnam’s State President in assigning the two officials in South Sudan. Thanh also handed green berets and the military flag to the officials. The officials are Lieutenant Colonel Mac Duc Trong, 43, and Lieutenant Colonel Tran Nam Ngan, 42. Man of multilateral affairs Serving as a scout before moving to work as a signal official, Trong graduated from the military sciences faculty of the Vietnam Academy of Military Science. He has 12 years of working for the Institute of International Relations for National Defense under the Ministry of National Defense, specializing in foreign relations for defense and multilateral security. Trong, whose hometown is in the central province of Nghe An, taught himself English before being sent to study in a school of ground forces in India. In 2005, Trong was assigned to join a two month training session for military observations in Australia before devoting his time to the studies of UN peacekeeping. “I recognized that the peacekeeping missions of the UN have the best security mechanisms to solve conflicts because they have the best legal bindings,” he said. “The mechanism focuses on collective manner to solve a dispute and so it is not for local benefits or intervention.” “If two nations or two parties of a nation are involved in a long lasting clash and are unable to solve it themselves, the UN will enter when they need. “Military observers will set up a buffer zone between the two parties to observe the ceasefire, disarmament, and support for an election. “We were trained in skills such as negotiations on being kidnapped, talks with both opposite sides, and acting as a bridge for two opposing sides. “We were also provided with other skills such as how to anti-kidnap; survive during kidnapping; and survive in the jungle, swamp, and desert,” Trong explained. Negotiating is one of the most important factors of the training session, he added. Last year, Trong joined a month long session to train peacekeeping lecturers in Mongolia. Setting foot in 30 nations in five continents While Trong specializes in multilateral foreign relations, his compatriot Tran Nam Ngan from Hanoi is an experienced official for bilateral foreign relations. Ngan has 17 years of working for the foreign relations department under the Ministry of National Defense, and is now an official of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center. He has accompanied senior leaders to visit 30 nations in five continents. “This job gives me the chance to meet and talk with many people of different positions, including normal people,” Ngan said. He visited Botswana, the little known nation in Africa, and North Korea twice. He recalled a story he remembers most in his 17 years of working as an interpreter, “In 2005, I was exceptionally allowed to sit at the same table to eat with the South Korean army commander as the host of the event. “It was a special case because in South Korea, interpreters sit outside dining tables.” He talked about his upcoming job in South Sudan, “The task of the communications officials in the UN peacekeeping operation is to act as a bridge between command post and other units of the UN, international organizations, local authorities, and political and military parties.” He said he has to make efforts to successfully complete his tasks and set a good example for the image of Vietnamese army officials abroad. Tuoi Tre