ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday described United Nations peacekeeping as the most cost-effective tool for maintaining international peace and security, calling on the Security Council to ensure missions are politically anchored, properly funded and planned with clear mandates to avoid failure.
Speaking at a high-level briefing on the future of UN peace operations, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Asim Iftikhar Ahmad noted no new peacekeeping mission had been launched in the past decade, even as global crises multiply.
He warned that downgrading or prematurely ending missions without political resolution risks creating dangerous vacuums and undermining hard-won gains.
“Peace operations remain one of the most cost-effective tools available to the international community for maintenance of international peace and security,” Ahmad said. “With a budget of $5.5 billion, UN peacekeeping worldwide constitutes less than 0.3 percent of global military spending.”
The ambassador added that peacekeeping missions must not be viewed as substitutes for political processes, but rather as mechanisms to enable them. He also stressed the need for credible, context-specific mandates and responsible, conditions-based transitions instead of calendar-driven exits.
Pakistan, one of the world’s top troop-contributing countries, has deployed over 235,000 peacekeepers to 48 missions across four continents over the past eight decades.
It currently hosts one of the UN’s oldest missions — the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) — and is a founding member of the Peacebuilding Commission.
Ahmed said a total of 182 Pakistani peacekeepers have lost their lives in service under the UN flag.
“Peacekeeping is not a silver bullet, but neither is it obsolete,” he said. “It remains the most legitimate, collaborative and cost-effective tool the international community possesses to stabilize conflicts and support political solutions.”
