Minister Kehoe to attend United Nations Peacekeeping Summit in Vancouver

Minister with Responsibility for Defence, Mr. Paul Kehoe, T.D. travels to Canada today (14 November) to attend the United Nations Peacekeeping Leaders’ Summit. The 2017 Ministerial will be hosted by the Canadian Government in Vancouver on 14th-15th November, 2017. Defence Ministers from around the world will be in attendance.

Over 500 delegates from more than 70 countries and international organizations are expected to gather at Conference in Vancouver. Along with representatives from the African Union, the European Union, NATO and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, these delegates will discuss improvements to UN peacekeeping operations. The conference will also focus on securing new pledges from Member States on capability and mission training for personnel from Troop Contributing Countries deploying to UN missions.

At the Conference, Minister Kehoe will reiterate Ireland’s commitment to UN peacekeeping and announce additional training pledges by Ireland to support the professional training and preparation of UN peacekeepers.

Speaking on his way to the event, the Minister commented “I look forward to meeting and with Defence Ministers from right across the UN over the coming days. The conference provides a unique opportunity to build and deepen relationships with States with whom Ireland shares common values and interests in support of international peace and security. Building on our long experience of peacekeeping under UN mandates, Ireland will be pledging to provide a range of training initiatives to support other current and future troop contributing countries. I believe that it is essential that we continue to work collaboratively with the United Nations and with troop contributors to make peacekeeping operations as efficient, as effective and as safe as possible”.

While in Canada, Minister Kehoe will also carry out a number of official engagements and will use the opportunity to deepen the very important bilateral relationship between the two countries. Minister Kehoe is also looking forward to meeting with members of the Irish community in Vancouver.

[ENDS]

Notes for the Editors

The Vancouver Conference builds on previous summits in New York (2014 and 2015) and London (2016), at which Ireland made a number of training pledges. Ireland has made available a range of training courses which are run in the UN School in the Curragh. A range of additional courses to be run in the Curragh or in a host country, involving peacekeeping and specialist training, will be pledged by the Minister in Vancouver. These includes, International Protection of Civilians, Human Rights Training, Core Pre Deployment Training, Counter IED and Mine Awareness.