The United Nations has decided to raise the salaries of its peacekeeping troops.
The decision has been viewed as a major success for the diplomatic efforts of the nations who send their soldiers to the international agency.
A senior official of the agency, seeking anonymity, told bdnews24.com that the senior staff had reached a consensus about raising the troop-reimbursement rate.
The peacekeepers currently get $1,210 monthly pay, which will be raised to $1,400, the official said.
The resolution was passed at the general assembly on Thursday.
The peacekeeping official said the salary raise would be implemented gradually over the next four years.
Bangladesh, which sends the highest number of troops to UN peacekeeping missions, has been lobbying for a pay hike for several years.
The proposal has been backed by India, Pakistan and African nations. Bangladesh had proposed to raise it to $1,700.
Top contributors to the missions – USA, Japan and France – opposed the proposal.
Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN AKA Momen said the peacekeeping budget had been raised to $8.6 billion after a lot of effort.
“It’s smaller than one percent of what the developed countries spend in the defence sector annually,” he said.
“Given the prevailing market prices, the pay should have been $1,700 and we had been trying to get that for a long time. Bangladesh also seeks more of its citizens at the senior positions of the peacekeeping missions,” he said.
According to the UN, until May 31 there were 117,967 peacekeepers deployed in 17 missions across the world. Among them there are 8,810 Bangladeshis. Other top suppliers of peacekeepers are India, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Nepal.
Source: bdnews24
