The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the British Council and Alliance Francaise in Bangkok, have co-organised English and French training courses during 28 September – 16 October 2015 for 101 Thai military and police officers preparing to participate in United Nations peacekeeping operations.  This marks the fourth consecutive year of a very fruitful partnership between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Council and the second consecutive year between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Alliance Francaise.

The English training courses constituted 2 curriculums: one designed for preparing future peacekeepers to be deployed in UN peacekeeping missions while the other aimed for officers who already have experience in UN peacekeeping missions abroad and are now serving as trainers for the next generation of Thai peacekeepers.

As for the French training courses, Alliance Francaise has also arranged 2 curriculums. The first is for police officers who did not have French language skills, 11 of whom have already been selected to be deployed in the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti where French is the official language. The second curriculum is for Thai military and police officers who have some French language background in order to further the effective fulfillment of their duties when they are deployed in UN peacekeeping missions in French-speaking countries.

Since Thailand became a UN Member State in 1946, more than 20,000 Thai military and police officers, both men and women, have been deployed and have proudly served in more than 20 UN peacekeeping and related operations worldwide. Presently, 32 Thai military and police officers are serving in 5 UN peacekeeping missions: UNAMID (Darfur, Sudan); UNMOGIP (India-Pakistan border); UNMIL (Liberia); MINUSTAH (Haiti) and UNMISS (South Sudan).