Sargsyan: Armenia is ready to continue its participation in  international peacekeeping missions, deeply aware of their importance

ArmInfo.The delegation of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia led by the Minister Vigen Sargsyan in Vancouver took part in the UN peacekeeping summit.  As the press  service of the Armenian Defense Ministry told ArmInfo, Sargsyan noted  in his speech that Armenia is one of the countries that makes maximum  efforts in peacekeeping missions.

"Our country is ready to continue its participation in peacekeeping missions, deeply aware of their importance.In parallel with the provision of peacekeeping contingent  for missions in Lebanon, Mali, Kosovo and Afghanistan, Armenia  creates a national peacekeeping training center in the republic with  the aim of its further accreditation as an international peacekeeping  training center, "he noted.

The main theme of the last summit was to increase the effectiveness  of UN peacekeeping missions.  According to the speakers, the UN  member states should take concrete steps in this direction. It was  also expressed the mutual opinion that the UN peacekeeping mission is  by far the best tool for preventing conflicts in different parts of  the world, suppressing mass violence and humanitarian crises, which  obliges us to concentrate our efforts to increase the effectiveness  of joint actions. Separately, the need to increase the number of  women peacekeepers in the UN missions was stressed. It was suggested  to bring this figure to 15%. At the meeting, Prime Minister of Canada  Justin Trudeau, who introduced the "Vancouver approaches", which  should stop attempts to force children to participate in hostilities.

The Armenian delegation also visited the Ai center (Armenian, ed.),  Where Sargsyan met with the Armenian community of Vancouver. The  meeting was also attended by the Armenian Ambassador to Canada Levon  Martirosyan. Sargsyan talked about the modernization of the Armenian  Armed Forces, in particular, the steps being taken to increase the  army's combat readiness, acquire new weapons, and improve the safety  of combat duty. From Vancouver, the Armenian delegation headed to  Montreal.