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India gave 2L vaccines for UN peacekeepers: Jaishankar at tech platform launch
Jaishankar was speaking at the launch of UNITE AWARE, a technology platform for peacekeeping missions aimed at providing terrain-related information to peacekeepers.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday the Indian government provided two lakh vaccines against the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease for personnel of the United Nations’ Peacekeeping mission in March this year. Jaishankar, who chaired the UN Security Council's open debate on technology and peacekeeping, this was a reflection of the government’s deep commitment to ‘protecting the protectors’ as peacekeeping continued to play a crucial role in India’s vision for international peace and security.
In collaboration with the UN, India launched UNITE AWARE, a technology platform for peacekeeping missions aimed at providing terrain-related information to peacekeepers. The launch came as India assumed the presidency of the 15-nation UN Security Council for August.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce that India is supporting the UN in the rollout of the UNITE Aware Platform across select peacekeeping missions. It is based on the expectation that a peacekeeping operation can be visualized, coordinated and monitored on a real-time basis,” Jaishankar said in his address at the UN headquarters in New York.
India has contributed $1.64 million towards the project and developed it in partnership with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Operational Support.
He said UN peacekeeping “simply cannot” afford to cede the information advantage to actors determined to undermine prospects for peace by using modern technology to aid their violent cause, adding 21st-century peacekeeping must be anchored in a strong ecosystem of technology and innovation that can facilitate such operations in implementing their mandates in complex environments.
He said the international community must focus on operationally proven, cost-effective, widely available, reliable and field-serviceable technologies that must also prioritise mobility, both in the sense of agile manoeuvrability of mission assets and in the sense of the use of mobile digital / IT platforms.
He called for contributing to ensure that technological improvements are continuous and are available on the ground, in the gear that peacekeepers carry and the weapons and tools they use to enhance their mobility, performance, endurance, range, and load-carrying capabilities while guaranteeing their safety and security.
A four-point framework to meet contemporary threats include operationally proven and cost-effective technologies, a sound intelligence foundation, continuous technological improvements, and consistent training and capacity-building of peacekeepers in the realm of technology, Jaishankar said.
“We are pleased to inform that the council has adopted a resolution on ‘accountability of crimes against UN peacekeepers’ as well as a presidential statement on ‘technology for peacekeeping’, the first such UN Security Council document on this topic,” Jaishankar said.
(With agency inputs)
