Tunis/Tunisia — Tunisia observes on May 29, with all the United Nations Member States, the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, which marks, this year, the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the first peacekeeping mission under the banner of the United Nations, celebrated under the theme "Peace Begins with Me."

Tunisia seizes this opportunity to renew its call for a more comprehensive concept of international peace and security, based on international cooperation and solidarity and on a common understanding of the root causes of conflicts, in a way that would help achieve equitable and sustainable development for all countries and peoples, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad statement.

Since its first participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960, Tunisia has been considered among the most important contributors to UN peacekeeping missions, given its conviction about the pivotal role played by these missions in order to protect civilians, support peacebuilding efforts and provide security in conflict contexts.

Tunisia's current contribution of about 1,000 military, police and corrections personnel, women and men, to UN missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and Abyei, is testimony to our country's full involvement in this international multilateral instrument as a means to build sustainable peace and security, protect civilians, promote political solutions to crises and achieve recovery, reconstruction and development, despite the complexity of the areas of operations to which many UN peacekeeping missions are deployed and the volatile and dangerous working environments.