Army Chief Meets India’s UN Envoy, Reviews UN Peacekeeping Role Highlighting Role Of Civil–Military Synergy
The interaction underscored the importance of civil–military synergy in strengthening infrastructure, improving livelihoods. Image courtesy: X.com/@adgpi
Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi recently held detailed discussions with Ambassador P Harish, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, focusing on the Indian Army’s role in United Nations peacekeeping operations and evolving regional and global security challenges.
India has been a big contributor to global peace and security, with over 2,90,000 peacekeepers serving in more than 50 UN missions. Currently, over 5,000 Indian peacekeepers are deployed in 9 active missions, working in challenging conditions to promote international peace.
Army chief General Dwivedi and Ambassador Harish’s interaction, held on Wednesday (December 24, 2025), also examined geostrategic dynamics in South Asia and how military capability and diplomacy can be integrated to promote peace, stability and security.
Focus on UN peacekeeping operations
According to the Indian Army, the meeting reviewed the evolving nature of UN peacekeeping missions, including operational challenges faced by troop-contributing countries.
“General Upendra Dwivedi, COAS, today interacted with Ambassador P Harish, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York. The interaction focused on the Indian Army’s evolving role in United Nations peacekeeping operations, emerging geostrategic dynamics in South Asia and the integrated application of military and diplomacy to advance peace, stability and security,” the Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADG PI) said in a post on X.
Worth mentioning here is that India had in 2023 received the UN’s highest peacekeeping honour, the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal, posthumously awarded to Indian peacekeepers Shishupal Singh and Sanwala Ram Vishnoi and civilian UN worker Shaber Taher Ali for their sacrifice in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Military-diplomatic synergy discussed
The two leaders also reflected on how military professionalism and diplomatic engagement complement each other in complex peacekeeping environments, especially amid political fragmentation, asymmetric threats and prolonged conflicts.
Officials said such coordination is essential as peacekeeping missions increasingly operate in volatile and contested theatres, where traditional ceasefire monitoring roles are giving way to multidimensional tasks.
Global strain on peacekeeping missions
The interaction comes against the backdrop of General Dwivedi’s remarks at the United Nations Troop Contributing Countries’ (UNTCC) Chiefs Conclave held in New Delhi in October 2025. At the conclave, he warned that UN peacekeeping is facing challenges of unprecedented scale, citing more than 56 active conflicts involving 19 nations worldwide.
“The global order is almost at an inflexion point,” he said, noting that shifting power dynamics are weakening consensus within the United Nations and hampering cohesive action.
New-age threats and hybrid warfare
General Dwivedi has repeatedly highlighted how disruptive technologies, non-state actors, hybrid warfare and disinformation have blurred traditional battle lines.
“These realities demand more resilient, swift and unified responses that only peacekeepers working together can deliver,” he said, calling for closer coordination among troop-contributing nations.
India’s long-standing commitment to UN peacekeeping
India remains one of the largest and most consistent contributors to UN peacekeeping operations.
According to General Dwivedi, India has deployed around 3,00,000 personnel across 51 UN peacekeeping missions, earning global recognition for professionalism, discipline and humanitarian outreach. He has also underlined that Indian peacekeepers often play multiple roles – security providers, diplomats, technology operators and nation-builders.
Meanwhile, the meeting between the Army Chief and India’s UN envoy underscores New Delhi’s continued emphasis on rules-based international order and its commitment to strengthening peacekeeping at a time of rising geopolitical uncertainty. As global conflicts intensify, India’s combined military and diplomatic engagement remains central.
