Believe it or not, Nepal is the number one on the list of United Nations peacekeeper contributors in the world at present. The latest updated list of the UN peacekeeping office on 30 November 2023 stated that Nepal ranked top with 6,247 troops in 12 different missions. In the list of more than 120 countries, one of Nepal’s closest friends Bangladesh ranked second with 6,197 troops in different missions.

Interestingly, previously, Bangladesh was number one and Nepal was in second place in the list. Nepal and Bangladesh almost share the same area of land in South Asia and coincidentally they are leading the peacekeeping missions, in terms of the number of peacekeepers. India ranked third with 6,073 troops while another South Asian nation Pakistan is in the fifth spot with 4,164 troops in the different missions. Sir Lanka is in the 29th rank with 561 troops. This shows that South Asian Countries have been leading the peacekeeping in the world for a few decades.  

The landlocked country between two Asian giants—India and China—Nepal has been coined as a small country in terms of geo-political relations. But Nepal has outshined both its neighbours, in terms of its contribution towards peacekeeping. Latest update, China is eight on the list of UN peacekeeping with 2,267.

Nepal got UN membership in 1955. After three years, Nepal started its peace operation job. The Nepali Army, for the first time, took part in the peacekeeping mission in 1958 sending five military observers to the United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In 1974, the first Nepali contingent, Purano Gorakh Battalion was deployed in the West Asian country Egypt. Nepal has sent military contingents, military observers and staff officers to different parts of the world, mostly in the African region. Nepali Army has also worked as engineers, physicians and Special Force contingents in different missions. According to the Nepali Army, till now, they worked in some 44 UN missions, in which over 1,49,890 personnel have participated. During their job in different difficult missions, 73 personnel have died and 68 suffered severe injuries to date.

On the other hand, in the last 30 years, Bangladesh has become one of the most peacekeeping contributing countries in the world. Bangladesh got UN membership in 1974. The Bangladesh Army started its UN peacekeeping journey in 1988 by sending a group of officers to the UN Iran-Iraq Military Observers Group (UNIMOG).

According to the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh has successfully participated in 54 peacekeeping missions in different parts of the world. Bangladesh Army data shows that 1,63,887 peacekeepers from Bangladesh have participated in different UN missions in 40 different countries and till May 2019, a total of 117 personnel have made supreme sacrifices while another 209 were injured.

In May 1948, the first UN peacekeeping mission was established after the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of a small number of UN military observers to West Asia (Middle East) to form the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

According to the UN data, over the past 70 years, more than one million men and women served under the UN flag in more than 70 UN peacekeeping operations and more than 100,000 military, police and civilian personnel from 125 countries are currently serving in 14 peacekeeping operations. The peacekeepers have played to maintain peace in the difficult different missions in countries like Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Sinai, Tajikistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Haiti, Israel, Somalia, Former Yugoslavia, Liberia, Kosovo, DR Congo, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Sudan, Burundi, Chad, Syria, Mali, Libya, Central African Republic and other countries.

In the difficult missions of the different countries, Nepal and Bangladesh are leading to maintain peace in this volatile and vulnerable world. Indian geo-political expert Prof. C Raja Mohan, in the book Nepal’s Contributions to UN Peacekeeping in 2021, has mentioned that Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are among the top contributors to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.

“These four South Asian nations have signified and reinforced the importance of South Asia as a region to global peace,” he added. “However, their genuine effort and contribution have not been well-recognised and acknowledged. Therefore, there is a need to study and appreciate the contributions made by the individual member states as well as South Asia as a region to establish world peace and harmony.”

The UN must reward Nepal and Bangladesh for their contribution to maintaining peace in different regions through the ‘Blue Helmet’. Moreover, the UN headquarters and UN Security Council must give space to these countries. On the other hand, these countries must also ask the UN for more opportunities to take a bigger role and at policy-level appointments because peacekeepers’ sacrifice and contribution must be acknowledged. Besides, they must use their UN peacekeeping weapons as a diplomatic strength.
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The writer is a Deputy-chief Sub-editor at the Kantipur Daily