UNITED NATIONS: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pledged an additional infantry battalion and unarmed Pakistani drones to enhance UN peacekeeping missions.

“We are pledging an infantry battalion … we also commit to providing surveillance unmanned unarmed aerial vehicles,” the prime minister told a UN peacekeeping summit conference in New York on Monday afternoon.

Pakistan, which co-hosted the summit with the United States and others began contributing troops to UN peacekeeping missions in 1960. Today it has the most troops serving under the UN flag.

More than 50 countries attended the summit and pledged 40,000 additional soldiers and police officers to the UN force. US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also addressed the summit.

Earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the General Assembly that his country would build an 8,000-member peacekeeping standby force and contribute $1 billion over the next 10 years to a United Nations “peace and development fund”.

More than 50 countries pledge 40,000 additional soldiers and police personnel

President Obama promised to increase US logistical support, including air and sealift capacity; airfields and base camps. He also offered to train peacekeepers to counter improvised explosive devices, which have killed many UN peacekeepers.

He also played a key role in persuading other nations to increase their troop contributions.

Prime Minister Sharif said Pakis­tan would also provide transport, engineering and signals companies and additional utility helicopters.

The Pakistani drones, he said, would enhance peacekeepers’ “capabilities to protect civilians and military personnel”.

Pakistan announced in March this year that it had successfully armed an indigenously produced drone, called the Burraq, with a laser-guided missile.

Earlier this month, the Pakistani military said that its unmanned aircraft had killed three suspected terrorists, marking the first use of locally-made drones in the war against terrorists.

“We consider modern technology an important component of peacekeeping today,” Mr Sharif said.

He noted that “professional, well-trained and competent” Pakistani peacekeepers had never shied away from their mandated tasks.

“They are deployed in the most difficult theatres, staying the course in Liberia, even during the Ebola outbreak,” the prime minister said.

He offered Pakistan’s full support to the initiative of UN Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System.

Published in Dawn, September 30th , 2015

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