Pakistan calls for boosting Blue Helmets' role

Express Tribune

31-07-2025

Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, speaks at the UN Security Council meeting on Israel-Iran conflict on June 13, 2025. Courtesy: X@PakistanUN_NY
Pakistan has called for strengthening and better-equipping the United Nations peacekeeping to address the underlying causes of disputes, saying, "Nowhere is this more urgently needed than in Jammu and Kashmir' — a longstanding dispute on the UN Security Council's agenda.
"This Council, which mandates the missions, must ensure that missions are deployed with an accompanying credible political process that addresses the root causes of conflicts, and that mission mandates are demand-driven, clear, sequenced, and context-specific", Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 15-member body on Tuesday.
"The imperative of political solutions is obvious," he said in a debate on 'Adapting Peace Operations for the Pursuit of Political Solutions — Priorities and Challenges".
"This Council should fulfill its obligations and make concerted efforts to secure a just and lasting solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the wishes of the Kashmiri people," the Pakistani envoy added.
In his remarks, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar highlighted Pakistan's experience of nearly eight decades of engagement with UN Peace operations, saying the country had remained among the top troop contributors, host to one of the UN's oldest missions — United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the Line of Control (LoC) in the distributed Kashmir region.
"We are also founding member of the Peacebuilding Commission," he said, pointing out that over 235,000 Pakistani peacekeepers have served with distinction in 48 missions across 4 continents. "A total of 182 of our bravest have laid down their lives in the service of peace. We greatly value the importance of the UN peace operations".
"Overall, peace operations are a success story," added Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, who is the Council President for July, speaking in his national capacity.
"With an annual budget of $5.5 billion, UN peacekeeping worldwide constitutes less than 0.3 per cent of global military spending."
Multiple studies have confirmed that it peacekeeping reduces violence, protects civilians and helps sustain peace arrangements, he pointed out.
All reform efforts must therefore preserve operational credibility, institutional memory and readiness of peace operations, he said, stressing: "Peacekeeping is not a silver bullet, but neither is it obsolete."
The Pakistani envoy said the success of peace operations depends on strong political undertaking by member states, particularly the Security Council.
"Where the UN and the Council retreat or hesitate, political vacuums emerge," he said, noting that this vacuum is being increasingly filled by negative actors and soldiers of fortune, thus proliferating the threats to international peace and security.
"That space must be reclaimed through credible political processes, anchored by the Council's authority and implemented through empowered UN missions," Ambassador Asim Iftikhar said, adding that peacekeeping must maintain a people-centered approach.
"Peacekeeping missions should put greater emphasis on promoting local peace arrangements at the community level wherever possible to reduce violence and build trust."