UN military observer training of trainer course opens in Hanoi

In his opening address, Major General Pham Manh Thang, director of the VDPO, hailed the effective co-ordination for the course’s organisation among the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), the US Mission to Vietnam’s Office of Defense Cooperation, and the department’s training centre.

Bengt Folkesson, head of the GPOI Lecture Panel, emphasized that participants will be equipped with essential skills as part of efforts to increase their operational capabilities in field missions.

Military observers tend to engage in field missions to fulfill their duties through monitoring; reporting; conducting investigations and negotiations; working with local people, military commanders, and village chiefs; and supporting humanitarian forces, UN police, and other protection forces. They are often deployed unarmed to remote and hostile areas.

Folkesson noted that the GPOI training programme is regularly updated to deal with  increasing challenges faced in UN peacekeeping missions.

Representing the participants, Captain Do Huyen Trang, an officer from VDPO, said that the roles of military observers, such as negotiation and information gathering, require not only language proficiency and communication skills, but also knowledge and experience.

The training course gives its attendees a great opportunity to learn from experts and colleagues in order to become future instructors, thereby contributing to the successful performance of their missions, she added.