EAM announces rollout of ‘UNITE Aware’ tech

WHY IN NEWS?

External Affairs Minister (EAM), S Jaishankar, announced the rollout of “UNITE Aware” tech to help protect UN peacekeepers.

About:       

• He made this announcement at th4 UN headquarters in New York while he was chairing UN security council open debate on “Technology and Peacekeeping”. He noted that, UN peacekeeping missions continue to operate in challenging situations involving terrorists, armed groups and non-state actors.
• Because of nature of peacekeeping has become more complex, it is significant that out capabilities are in pace to secure the peace keepers
• He highlighted that, 21st-century peacekeeping must be anchored in a strong ecosystem comprising of technology and innovation in order to facilitate UN peacekeeping operations.
• He announced India’s support to UN in roll out of UNITE AWARE.

India’s view

India believes in holding talks when it comes to the safety and security of UN peacekeepers. For India, peacekeeping continues to play a crucial role of ensuring international peace and security. External Affairs minister noted that, currently 5 thousand Indian personnel are deployed for nine missions and to protect the protectors, India provides 2 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine to vaccinate UN Peacekeeping personnel across the globe.

4-point framework

Minister proposed a 4-point framework in order to lay out a possible architecture of securing UN peacekeepers in order to meet contemporary threats. UNSC has adopted a Resolution on Accountability of Crimes against the UN Peacekeepers and Presidential Statement on Technology for Peacekeeping.

India-UN MoU

India and the United Nations signed a MoU to support the Partnership for Technology in Peacekeeping initiative and to UN C4ISR Academy for Peace Operations