The Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping in India (CUNPK) commenced the first United Nations Peacekeeping Course for African Partners (UNPCAP-01) for a duration of three weeks commencing from July 25 at New Delhi. The course is being conducted jointly with the USA. Mr MJ Akbar, Minister of State for External Affairs chaired the inaugural session. Lt Gen MMS Rai, VCOAS welcomed the participants from African countries. He stated that Indian Army had acquired vast experience through decades of participation of Indian peacekeepers in UN Peace Keeping Operations (UNPKO). He also brought out that CUNPK has trained 900 officers from 92 countries in UNPKO, till date. Secretary (ER), Ministry of External Affairs, Permanent representative of India to the UN, US Ambassador to India and the UN Resident Coordinator in India also spoke on the occasion.
The course is aimed to build the capacity of the African Troop Contributing Countries to the UN and to further train the Trainers from these countries. The course, which revolves around the concept of training the trainers, as stated by the UN, is one of the many steps that India has initiated towards active contribution to peace support activities. Incidentally, India is one of the largest Troop Contributing Country (TCC) and US is the largest Fund Contributing Country (FCC) to the UN. The students include officers who are currently employed in the respective peacekeeping training centres in African peacekeeping training institutions. The training conducted during this course will incorporate topics on operational and logistical matters, humanitarian issues, thematic topics, Blackboard and table top exercises and mission briefs. The course is also targeted to assist the student officers to further train officers in their respective countries on nuances of peacekeeping. Indian team of instructors will be assisted by the US in this event.