U.S Ambassador to Nepal Peter Bodde formally turned over $1.8 million of Global Peacekeeping Operations Initiative (GPOI) funded heavy engineering equipment to the Nepalese Army at the Birendra Peacekeeping Operations Training Center in Panchkhal Friday.  The equipment includes bulldozers, excavators, grader, backhoe, steam roller, ambulances, water tank truck, dump truck and pickup trucks.  The Office of Defense Cooperation delivered the equipment over the past month to two separate locations: the Kali Prasad Engineer Battalion in Kathmandu and the Peacekeeping Center in Panchkhal.  The equipment will be used for pre-deployment training, infrastructure improvements at the training center, and peacekeeping missions.

According to a press release issued by Public Affairs Section Embassy of The United States, addressing representatives from Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Home Affairs, senior leaders from Armed Police Force and Nepal Police, Ambassador Bodde said, “With the support of U.S. Global Peace Operations Initiative funding, and through the efforts of the Nepalese Army, this training center has become a model of how to provide expertise and pre-deployment training for units and individuals in peacekeeping operations.” Currently, Nepal is the sixth largest contributor to UN Peacekeeping Operations with over 4,000 soldiers from the Nepalese Army and close to a thousand from the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force, participating in fourteen missions.