ISLAMABAD, March 7: Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Ehsan Ul Haq on Wednesday termed the United Nations as a beacon of hope and peace and said its role in the area of peace and security has remained pivotal.

Delivering a keynote address on the concluding day of an international conference on UN Peacekeeping Operations organized by the National Defence University, he said in the wake of strategic shock waves of 9/11, the international environment had become more prone to conflicts and hostilities on ethnic, sectarian, politico-religious and other causes and observed that the role of UN had become increasingly critical in this situation.

He said over the years, UN support had also been focusing on reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes in coordination with other organisation, thereby extending peacekeeping activities into a more complex phenomenon. “This reality has been reflected in the sharp increase in the number of peacekeeping missions established worldwide,” he stated. He said this persistent and increasingly complex problem could only be addressed through joint efforts, multilateralism and integration. “We must emphasise that integration is a vital compulsion and levels of integration must focus on the link between political and military objectives of peace enforcement.”

He said that challenges of future peacekeeping operations were many and success will increasingly depend on collaborative efforts of the international community, the rapid deployment capability of peacekeeping forces and working with a larger community of partner countries and organisations. There are also resource constraints caused by cuts in defence budgets and increased requirements of member countries.

He said Pakistan had played an active and constructive role in international peacekeeping efforts of the UN and had 10,000 Armed Forces personnel on peacekeeping missions worldwide, which was over 13 per cent of the UN Forces. “In the increasingly fluid environment, greater flexibility is essential to rapidly adapt to meet varying levels of peace operations.”