Agreement to send Maldivian soldiers to UN peacekeeping operations will be signed soon: Nazim

Minister of Defence Mohamed Nazim has said that an agreement will be signed soon to send Maldivian soldiers to join United Nations peacekeeping operations.

In an interview, Nazim told Sun Online that the Maldives has tried to contribute to the UN peacekeeping operations for about 10 years, and that the relevant papers have now been sent to the Maldives’ Mission to the UN.

He said that it should be possible to send Maldivian soldiers to UN peacekeeping operations at the end of this year or early next year.

He said that several Maldivians soldiers have been trained to join the peacekeeping operations at the peacekeeping training centres established by the UN in cooperation with Nepal and Malaysia.

The first Maldivian to go through this training was Nazim, who attended the training in Malaysia.

The decision to send Maldivian soldiers to UN peacekeeping operations was made by the government of former President Mohamed Nasheed, and the signing of the Memorandum of Association in this regard has been approved by the parliament.