NEW YORK, MAY 29 – Italy’s role in UN missions is a significant part of its foreign outreach and responds to the need to safeguard national security in the face of transnational threats, the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Italian Permanent Mission to the UN reaffirm on the day marking the International Peacekeeping Day. “Our contribution to the UN peacekeeping missions is also in keeping with the traditional multilateralism of our foreign policy and with the conviction that, thanks to its universal vocation, the United Nations can play an unparalleled role in supporting the stabilisation of many crisis areas, particularly in the Middle East and Africa”.
Italy is the top supplier among Western and EU nations, in terms of military personnel and highly qualified police forces, to UN peacekeeping operations. Italy is also the seventh-ranked contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget. Italy’s participation in UN missions has been widely appreciated and has become a veritable model, thanks above all to our contingents’ capacity for dialogue with the local populations and to the complementarity they have provided between the civilian and military dimensions in stabilisation and peacekeeping operations.
In accordance with its foreign policy priorities, Italy plays an especially key role in the UNIFIL mission in Southern Lebanon, with over 1,000 Italian troops deployed there. Italy also participates in UN missions in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Italy is also active in the training of the police personnel destined for peacekeeping missions. Over 10 thousand Police Units from over 130 countries have been trained at the Centre of Excellence for the Stability Police Units (CoESPU) in Vicenza since 2006. Training has been provided in the areas of international human rights, tackling gender-based violence, the protection of children in conflict situations and restoration of the rule of law. Italy hosts a United Nations Logistics Base in Brindisi that provides logistics support to all UN peacekeeping operations in its role as a “Global Service Centre”, including in information science and telecommunications. It is also emerging as a centre of excellence and innovation in managing the environmental impact of UN operations. (@OnuItalia)
