Staff Correspondent: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday stressed the need for equipping peacekeepers with appropriate training and equipment with facing new crises in the peacekeeping operations at the advent of newer technologies alongside invisible enemies like the Coronavirus.
“At present, peacekeepers in UN peacekeeping missions have to deal with multidimensional and complex situations. The number of deaths of peacekeepers has also been rising at an alarming rate recently. So far, 158 Bangladeshi peacekeepers have died and 237 injured. The time has come to equip peacekeepers with appropriate training and equipment to deal with the new upcoming crises in UN peacekeeping operations. I hope required measures will be taken to this end,” she said.
Joining virtually the concluding ceremony, ‘Exercise Front Runner of Peace-2021 (Exercise Shantir Ogroshena, 2021)’ organized by the Bangladesh Army held at the Bangabandhu Cantonment, Ghatail, Tangail from her official Ganabhaban residence, she also said, in the current context, ensuring world peace has become much more challenging than in the past.
“With the advent of invisible enemies like the coronavirus, the rapid spread of technology, and the advancement of time, new threat elements have emerged,” she added.
She said that she has learned that some of the recent incidents in the UN peacekeeping mission have been presented to the participants in exercise so that our future peacekeepers may be well-trained in making appropriate decisions to deal with such situations.
The Premier cordially greeted the participating military members from the friendly countries- India, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka along with the members of the Bangladesh Army in this exercise and invited observers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait.