PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia remains committed to working closely and collaborating with UN offices at all levels to ensure development and progress on all fronts and spheres by taking the national interest into account.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said this at the launching of the new UN offices here today.
"I can assure the UN personnel that my ministry will extend its fullest cooperation to the works of the UN in Malaysia," he added.
He said UN offices’ relocation to Putrajaya is indeed timely as the UN had already established its services centres in Cyberjaya.
There are the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Shared Services Centre that serves 166 UNDP offices, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Services Centre that provides administrative services to all WHO offices worldwide, he added.
Anifah said he is convinced the relocation of UN offices to Putrajaya will further contribute towards enhancing the circle of networking.
This will also strengthen cooperation between UN personnel and the various Malaysian government ministries and agencies here, he added.
Also present at the event were UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Asia and Pacific, Haoliang Xu and UN Resident Coordinator in Malaysia Stefan Priesner.
The new office, which has already been in operation since two weeks ago, is located on the 10th floor of Menara Pjh at Presint 2.
Malaysia, Anifah also said, strongly believes that the United Nations (UN) plays an imperative role as a platform for international cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect and international law.
He said since joining the UN in September 1957, the country has been an active member in promoting the three founding pillars of the UN system.
The pillars are peace and security, human rights, and development, he added.
"These include Malaysia playing its role effectively and efficiently toward the efforts to prevent conflicts and to sustain peace during our non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council on four occasions; 1965, 1989-1990, 1999-2000 and 2015-2016.
"As well as our active participations in the UN peacekeeping missions since 1960 of which, to date, Malaysia has participated in 36 UN peacekeeping missions with over 35,000 of Malaysian military and police personnel deployed," he said.