The US also gave its support to Indonesia in the latter`s efforts to achieve its ambitious target just to improve the role of Indonesia and other ASEAN member countries in creating peace in the world, a release from the public relations of US State Secretary said here on Saturday.
Since 1957, Indonesia had actually mobilized about 24,000 personnel to uphold peace under the auspices of the UN peacekeeping force. Until now, Indonesia was recorded to have sent 1,700 troops to take control of the security in Lebanon, Congo, Haiti.
At present Indonesia is listed as the 20 biggest countries mobilizing peacekeeping personnel in the world.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has actually expressed Indonesian intention to be in the category of the 10 biggest suppliers of peacekeeping forces in the world, just for creating peace in the world.
For this purpose, Marty said that Indonesia planned to send more 4,300 peacekeeping troops in some foreign countries grappling with conflict-related instability.
One of the strategic keys Indonesia has to do is to increase the number and capability of personnel tasked to keep peace to prevail in the conflict-stricken countries by building a large-scaled peacekeeping training center in Sentul, Bogor.
The center which is currently under construction on a 159 hectare land is to be completed in 2013 and will have the capacity to train around 1,500 personnel.
The US plays a role in this center by providing human resources to support the target concerned.
Since 2006, the US had allocated US$14.8 million worth in fund for capacity enhancement for Indonesian peacekeeping program, including US$8 million for global peace operations initiative (GPOI) to support the development of barrack facility and other operational equipments in Indonesian Peace and Security Center.
GPOI also built a partnership with Indonesia in carrying out two multinational peacekeeping exercises.
After the completion of the construction process, the center concerned will be able to provide comprehensive exercises for peacekeeping personnel of Indonesia prior to their mobilization to a certain country in addition to functioning as a training ground for Southeast Asia.
The cooperation in maintaining peace was one of the examples of comprehensive cooperation between the US and Indonesia which may be engaged in a similar global priority. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
