BEIJING — China said Thursday it has assembled a standby force of thousands of United Nations peacekeepers, furthering its leading role in the global body’s efforts to tamp down conflicts worldwide. Defence Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang told reporters at a monthly briefing that the 8,000-member force had passed an assessment last month approved by U.N. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix. The United States is the largest contributor to peacekeeping, but deploys only 50 officers to U.N. missions. China was ready to both increase the number of peacekeepers it contributes as well as their particular skill sets, Ren said. With around 2 million members, China’s People’s Liberation Army is the world’s largest standing military force and the country’s defence budget is the second highest after the United States.

Source: National Post November 29, 2018 09:58 UTC