UNITED NATIONS,:With UN peacekeeping under pressure, Pakistan has emphasized that this flagship activity of the world body is a vital, cost-effective tool for global security that must be protected from geopolitical division and supported with strategic reform rather than weakening funding cuts.
“Peacekeeping remains an indispensable, effective, and cost-efficient tool for maintaining international peace and security,” Ambassador Syed Haider Shah, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), which began its consideration of peacekeeping operations on Friday.
While reform is needed, the Pakistani envoy said it must be approached with a strategic purpose to preserve the UN’s operational capacity. The United Nations, he added, must retain the capability to deploy a credible international presence whenever future ceasefires, political settlements, or emerging crises demand it.
Opening the debate, Mohamed Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, said: “Every day, our peacekeepers keep dialogue alive and stand between civilians and violence, far from home and at great personal risk. They have kept faith with us. Let us keep faith with them.”
Stressing that peacekeeping must be adequately resourced to ensure civilian protection, Khiari called on States to pay their contributions in full. Missions were forced to reduce expenditure by 15 per cent, repatriating 13,296 troops and 1,212 police.
While support for peacekeeping remains broad, “consistent political backing is harder to secure”, the UN official said. Despite these challenges, the UN’s peacekeeping missions continue to protect the vulnerable and defend peace, he added.
In his remarks, Ambassador Haider Shah reaffirmed Pakistan’s longstanding commitment to UN peacekeeping as a major troop-contributing country and a host state.
He pointed out that over 170,000 Pakistani peacekeepers had served under the UN flag, with 183 making the ultimate sacrifice. Pakistan was host to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the Line of Control in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir.
With peacekeeping facing mounting political, operational and financial pressures, Ambassador Haider Shah underscored that its relevance remained undiminished. The growing resort to regional arrangements and ad hoc operations, he said, underscored the continuing need for credible UN peacekeeping presence on the ground.
“What is needed is the political will in the Security Council to use this important instrument when circumstances require,” he stated.
In this regard, the Pakistani envoy called for reinforcing the primacy of political solutions; ensuring focused mandates matched with adequate resources; preserving peacekeeping’s distinctive institutional strengths; preparing for future military and police requirements; strengthening the safety and security of peacekeepers and accountability for crimes against them; and maintaining peacekeeping as a genuinely collective UN instrument.
Political processes and peacekeeping should reinforce one another, with missions helping stabilize environments, protect civilians, sustain ceasefires and preserve space for negotiations, Ambassador Haider Shah said. Regarding mandate rationalization, he warned against allowing financial ceilings to dictate operational requirements, stressing that political objectives should determine mandates.
Ambassador Shah also highlighted the need to preserve peacekeeping’s comparative advantages, including universal legitimacy, predictable financing, established command and logistics systems, and the ability to mobilize personnel and specialized capabilities from across the UN membership.
“Efficiency and cost reduction must therefore strengthen peacekeeping, not hollow out the capabilities that give UN peacekeeping its unique value,” he stressed.
On the protection of peacekeepers, Ambassador Haider Shah highlighted Pakistan’s leadership, alongside Denmark, in advancing Security Council Resolution 2823, unanimously adopted with a record 153 co-sponsors.
Peacekeeping, he said, remains a cost-effective and vital mechanism for maintaining international peace and security, adding It should be built upon and strengthened rather than undermined.
