Major General Sem Ratana, First Vice Chairman of the National Committee and Acting Director General of the National Peacekeeping Centre, on the morning of February 12, 2025, met and greeted 73 Royal Cambodian Blue Helmets who safely returned to Cambodia after completing the United Nations mission in the Republic of South Sudan for one year.
At the ceremony to welcome the blue helmets, Major General Sem Ratana also brought greetings from Dr Hun Manet, Prime Minister of Cambodia; Deputy Prime Minister Tea Seiha, Minister of National Defence and Chairman of the National Committee; and Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
The major general said that the 73 forces who participated in the peacekeeping mission for the country in crisis were an invaluable sacrifice, especially bringing fame to the royal government and the nation. Cambodia, a country that once received the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), has transformed itself into a country that actively sends forces to participate in peacekeeping missions under the United Nations umbrella and has received many much international praises praise.
On that occasion, General Sem Ratana said that the mission in the Republic of South Sudan, which participated in the implementation of tasks fruitfully, with proud results, and has strictly implemented the instructions of the UN Mission in the Republic of Lebanon in its mission area.
Ratana said that a year of difficult tasks in the Middle East, which has a different temperature from Cambodia and is a mountainous region suffering from the economic crisis, border conflicts and separation from family, is truly a great and priceless sacrifice. The repatriation today shows the efforts to overcome all obstacles, to overcome the actual situation of our brave soldiers and women and to return in good health, while their families are also full of smiles.
