Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is to send another warship to Lebanon soon to strengthen the maritime arm of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Middle Eastern country (UNIFIL), in addition to two other naval vessels already there, a military official said.

Two Indonesian warships - the KRI Diponegoro and KRI Frans Kasiepo - have already been serving in UNFIL since 2010, and the third ship , the KRI Iskandar Muda, would be assigned to the same duty next August, National Defense Forces (TNI) Chief Admiral Agus Suhartono said here Tuesday.

Agus made the statement in his address at a seminar to mark UN International Peacekeeping Forces Day which was read by Brig Gen I Gede Sumertha, head of the TNI`s Peacekeeping Center.

Since it became a UN member in September 1950, Indonesia for the first time took part in a UN peacekeeping mission in 1957, namely following the Egypt-Israel conflict in the same year.

Today, Indonesia is ranked 17th on the list of countries that have conributed the most to UN international peacekeeping missions. As per April 2011, Indonesia had already assigned a total of 1,801 soldiers, and 1,772 male and 29 women police officers to duty in UN international peacekeeping missions, Admiral Agus Suhartono said. (T.SYS/B/H-AJM/B/A014)

(ANTARA)

Editor: Ella Syafputri
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