KIGALI, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Rwandan government on Tuesday pledged continued support to the United Nations peacekeeping operations around the World.
Rwanda's minister of defence James Kabarebe made the commitment while speaking at the UN peace operations preparatory meeting in the capital city of Kigali.
More than 100 delegates from UN peacekeeping troops and finance contributing countries participate in the two-day meeting, which kicked off on Tuesday, to discuss modalities to improve peacekeeping.
Delegates are discussing issues like protecting those at risk and early warning and rapid deployment as selected themes and so on.
Rwanda has made significant efforts to strengthen peacekeeping operations within Africa and outside, said the defence minister, adding that Rwanda is committed to providing more support to the peacekeeping operations around the World as required by the UN.
Rwanda has provided support to UN peace operations including troops and police and equipment to bolster UN peacekeeping force, according to him.
The preparatory conference in Rwanda sets to prepare ground for the 2017 UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Conference due to take place in Vancouver, Canada from Nov. 14 to 15 this year, according to organizers.
The forum has brought together more than 100 participants from UN Peacekeeping Operations troops/police contributing countries and financial contributing countries.
The 2017 UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Conference in Canada is set to build on the successes of the ones previously held in New York City, the United States and London, the United Kingdom, to review current contributions by UN members, and more importantly, secure new pledges to meet the identified needs of UN peacekeeping operations, according to a statement issued by Rwanda's defense ministry ahead of Tuesday's meeting.
The top five troop and police contributing countries to UN peacekeeping missions are Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan and Rwanda.
Rwanda presently maintains over 1,800 troops as part of United Nations Mission in South Sudan. Over 600 Rwandan police officers are serving eight UN missions.
