India committed to UN missions: Sibal

India is committed to sending its troops for United Nations peacekeeping missions, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said on Thursday.

Delivering the key-note address at a seminar hosted by the Centre for United Nation Peacekeeping, Sibal said the issue of India sending its troops to Iraq was debated everywhere.

He said, "Some quarters suggested that New Delhi will be budging under US pressure and sending troops for stabilisation in Iraq. There was a request, but terming the request as pressure only demonstrated our vulnerability and low moral.

"To say India is budging under any pressure amounts to not doing justice with ourselves... the decision (to not send troops) was taken after careful consideration and solely by our parameters."

India shares a good relationship with the US and it is not proper to equate their request with pressure, he said.

"We believe that the United Nations has a major role to play in international peace. By our standards, we send troops where the world body wants to maintain peace and there are guidelines that the peacekeeping efforts will be followed by an accord between the conflicting parties," the foreign secretary said.

Sibal said India plays an important role in its peacekeeping missions.

"The peacekeeping force is deputed by India only after considering the national interest, regional equation, bilateral relations, besides other things…"

Sibal also highlighted that UN peacekeeping missions have now assumed a multi-dimensional role.

East Timor and Afghanistan are examples, he said, adding that India is continuously getting request for sending police personnel for peacekeeping missions.

India has participated in 37 of the 56 UN peacekeeping missions so far, he said, adding nearly 67,000 Indians have attended them.

"We have participated in most difficult missions like in Congo, Rwanda and Cambodia."

Sibal also paid tributes to Border Security Force officer Satish Menon, who died keeping peace in Kosovo.