Vietnam has worked across a broad spectrum to enhance her role in the United Nations (UN) and strengthen her ties with UN agencies, Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga told Vietnam News Agency reporters in a recent interview on the occasion of the September 15 opening of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)’s 70 th session. Nga, who acts as Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, said Vietnam has raised her voice at UN forums featuring peace-security, development and human rights while continually upholding principles of the UN Charter and international law, especially in respect for independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and peaceful settlement of disputes in line with international law for the sake of peace and security in the region and beyond during the UNGA’s 69 th session. Vietnam has sent officers to UN peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and Central Africa, actively joined in talks to achieve the UN’s priority goals, including developing a sustainable development agenda until 2030, the Addis Ababa action plan and a new financial framework for global development. In these talks, Vietnam worked with the G77 Group of developing countries in proposing initiatives on transferring technology, improving international cooperation efficiency and official development assistance, and bettering the UN’s role in ensuring sustainable development. The diplomat emphasised that one of the tasks that Vietnam and other countries are undertaking is improving parliamentary role in fulfilling sustainable development goals, evidenced by the successful hosting of the 132 nd Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Vietnam that ended with the issuance of the Hanoi Declaration, acclaimed by the international community. Vietnam is one of the countries led in fulfilling millennium development goals initiated by the UN and considered to be a success story for the pilot model “From unity to action”. New developments of the Vietnam – UN ties are marked by visits by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Vietnam in May and by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the UN in July, this year. Vietnam has also regularly popularised its images to the world via exhibitions, cultural-arts activities and cuisine display. In the future, Vietnam and the international community would rally all possible resources to achieve the sustainable development goals via awareness campaigns and incorporating them into socio-economic development policies, share experience in south-south cooperation, contribute to talks in climate change, especially at the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21), Nga said. According to her, Vietnam will continue pushing forward the proper settlement of disputes by peaceful means, self-constraint and refrain from the use of force, strengthening fair and mutually-beneficial cooperation and actively joining in efforts to overhaul the UN Security Council and General Assembly in response to increasingly complicated threats. She informed that Vietnam is actively bidding for a seat at the UN Economic and Social Council for the 2016-2018 tenure and the non-permanent membership at the UN Security Council for 2020-2021. The country also strives to fulfill its duty as a member of the UN Human Rights Council for 2014-2016. Vietnam is thoroughly preparing to launch a level-two field hospital and assign liaison and staff officers to the UN peacekeeping missions from 2016, she added.-VNA