Armed groups playing spoiler to peace efforts globally: India

India today said armed groups and non-state actors were playing 'spoilers' to peace efforts globally and sought qualitative improvement in the performance of UN peacekeeping contingents, staff and mission leadership.
Addressing the Defence Ministers' meeting in London, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre referred to the pledge of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York last year that India will provide troops for UN peacekeeping purposes.
He drew attention to the challenges being faced by UN peacekeeping operations with armed groups and non-state actors playing 'spoilers' to peace efforts, an official statement here said.
United Nations peacekeeping missions are no longer benign and humanitarian tasks are a major facet of current missions, he said.

Bhamre exhorted the UN to work in sync with host governments as otherwise it could lead to greater turbulence.
He also stressed the need of bringing about qualitative improvement in the performance of United Nations contingents, staff and mission leadership.

The minister made a mention of the issues raised by the Prime Minister Modi last year during the Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping, including the necessity of involving Troop Contributing Nations in mandate formulation, representation in key leadership positions in mission areas and above all the requirement of a more representative Security Council.
He recalled India's consistent and substantive response over the past seven decades of United Nations peacekeeping operations.

More than 2,30,000 Indian troops have participated in 50 of the 71 United Nations peacekeeping operations mandated by the UNSC so far.
India has also aided in capacity building of many countries, training 114 prospective peacekeepers from 35 countries this year itself with a special course each for African countries and for female peacekeepers.