Jigmi Wangdi

The Under-Secretary General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, thanked Bhutan on April 5 for her strong support, service, and sacrifice of military and police personnel deployed around the world for United Nations peacekeeping. 

Bhutan initially contributed uniformed personnel in 2014 to the UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO), the first-ever peacekeeping mission in the Middle East and the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). 

Today, Bhutan provides 211 uniformed personnel, including six women, to eight UN peacekeeping operations making it the 53rd largest contributor. 




Bhutan’s largest contribution is to MINUSCA where 187 of its peacekeepers currently serve. 

Bhutan also deploys personnel to the UN peacekeeping missions in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, the Middle East, South Sudan, and Western Sahara. 

Peacekeepers from Bhutan also served in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) at the height of the Ebola crisis and in the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

In December 2017, Bhutan also became the first country to pledge rapid deployment of troops as part of the UN Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System.




Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that the Bhutanese peacekeepers serve with professionalism and integrity, meaningfully contributing towards the maintenance of international peace and security in very challenging environments. 

He said, “I am grateful for their continued commitment to UN Peacekeeping and their resolve to minimise the environmental footprint of our missions, helping advance the UN Climate Neutral Strategy and Greening the Blue Initiative.”

 The UN appreciates the service and sacrifice of the men and women from Bhutan and counts on their continued support to create more agile, effective and accountable UN peacekeeping operations which deliver results, he added. 




Bhutan also endorsed the Secretary General’s ‘Action for Peacekeeping (A4P)’ initiative, which aims to strengthen peacekeeping through more targeted mandates, stronger and safer operations, better equipped and trained forces by mobilising support for political solutions. 

This year marks the 75th anniversary of UN Peacekeeping.