28.03.2015.
General Dikovic at the UN Conference
Head of the General Staff of Serbia General Ljubisa Dikovic took part in the Conference of chiefs of staff of the countries participating in the multinational UN operations held in UN headquarters in New York yesterday, which hosted heads of general staffs and other high military representatives from over 100 UN member states.This is the first conference of the kind organized by the UN since its establishment. The high military officials were addressed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with the message that the UN needs greater engagement of member states in peacekeeping operations, political will and unity, and that “efficient results demand broad consensus on the issues of why, where and how peacekeepers should conduct their mandate”.
The goal of the conference was to inform the chiefs of staff about the current political, strategic and operative circumstances of the ongoing UN peacekeeping operations, current challenges and opportunities for support to these operations, as well as to analyze the perspectives of the UN peacekeeping operations. Talks were also held on possibilities to use joint efforts to improve efficiency of the UN peacekeeping operations.
The conference at the UN headquarters was also an opportunity for many bilateral meetings. The Serbian delegation headed by General Dikovic wet with delegations of Denmark, Angola, Mali and Belarus, and discussed possibilities for improvement of military cooperation.
Since 1948, when the UN deployed the first peacekeeping mission in Near East for observation of cease-fire, 68 UN missions have been started. Currently, 16 missions are active in four continents, with around 93,000 soldiers and military experts, 17,000 civilians and 13,000 police officers from 120 countries. The latest one, MINISCA, has been active since 2014.
From 2006 until the end of 2014, the Armed Forces of Serbia deployed in 12 UN peacekeeping missions with 1,227 SAF members. Currently, the Armed Forces of Serbia are engaged in 7 UN peacekeeping missions with 312 of its members.
