Advancing Integrated Peacekeeping Capacity through the Triangular Partnership Programme (TPP)

The Triangular Partnership Programme (TPP) is a UN-led initiative that delivers specialised peacekeeping capacity-building through partnerships between deploying Troop-Contributing Countries (TCCs), supporting Member States, and the UN Secretariat. As of 2025, TPP primarily supports training across three core pillars—Engineering, Medical, and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and Camp Security Technologies, while also facilitating operational support initiatives of telemedicine to enhance the safety of troops and effectiveness of missions globally. As TPP, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary (2015-2025), moves into its second decade, Southeast Asia continues to provide a base for delivering peacekeeping training through the engineering rotational hosting cycle in the ASEAN region. Under this approach, interested ASEAN Member States take turns hosting TPP-supported courses, strengthening regional ownership, training continuity, and long-term sustainability. Cambodia, TPP’s host in the region from 2024 to 2026, has played a central role in integrated and multinational training delivery through the rotational framework.

Cambodia’s role within the ASEAN rotation

Cambodia’s engagement with UN Peacekeeping first began in 1992. As a host country to the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) from 1992-1993, Cambodia received peacekeeping support during the country’s transition to peace. Building on this experience, Cambodia has contributed its own uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide since 2006 - focusing on engineering, mine action, and military police deployments.

Cambodia first began its hosting engagement with TPP in 2023 after hosting an intermediate-level Heavy Engineering Equipment (HEE) Operators’ Course delivered in partnership with the Republic of Korea. While the course was delivered at the national level, all participating trainees were subsequently deployed to UN peacekeeping missions, including MINUSCA and UNIFIL. This engagement laid the foundation for Cambodia’s role as a regional training host and demonstrated its capacity to support mission-targeted engineering training for peacekeeping personnel.

Following earlier training rotations in the ASEAN region hosted by Vietnam and Indonesia, Cambodia assumed the role of TPP host from 2024, coordinating multiple TPP training courses for TCCs across ASEAN and neighbouring regions. With Thailand and the Philippines committed to host future rotations from 2027 onward, Cambodia’s 2024–2026 hosting period represents a key phase in a longer-term regional pathway for ASEAN-led peacekeeping capacity-building.

Integrated multinational delivery: a milestone for interoperability (2024)

A significant milestone was reached in 2024, when Cambodia hosted the region’s first cross-pillar TPP training course, delivering trainings across multiple pillars simultaneously. This training cycle comprised an HEE Operators’ Course and an Explosive Hazards Awareness Training (EHAT) for selected Asia-Pacific TCCs, alongside a Field Medical Assistants Course (FMAC) for Cambodian personnel. Across all three courses – both those delivered to national and international trainees; participating troops were subsequently deployed to UN peacekeeping missions, including MINUSCA and UNIFIL. While each course maintained its own curriculum, objectives, and target audience, they were conducted concurrently and concluded with a validation exercise designed around shared mission scenarios. The 2024 training programme was co-delivered by a multinational team with instructors from Australia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, reflecting strong cooperation among TPP’s supporting Member States. By familiarising participants with how engineering tasks, explosive hazard awareness, and medical readiness intersect in the field, the integrated training format strengthened interoperability and supported safer peacekeeping and conditions for troops.

Building on the success of 2024, Cambodia continued hosting cross-pillar trainings from April to June and from November to December 2025, with trainers from Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and participation from ASEAN Member States and other countries across Asia. The former period featured the HEE Operators’ Course and EHAT, while the latter, as in the previous year, focused on delivering complementary pillar-specific training in parallel, with both periods reinforcing cross-pillar coordination through mission-oriented scenarios. Through these efforts, Cambodia hosted a total of three multi-pillar TPP training courses in 2024 and 2025, integrating counter-improvised explosive device considerations in partnership with UNMAS.

Advancing quality peacekeeping through partnership

Cambodia’s experience reflects a broader evolution within TPP over its first decade: a shift from stand-alone technical instruction toward integrated, multinational training delivery that emphasises co-delivery across Member States, alignment with current missions, and bolstered global peacekeeping capacity amid global uncertainty.

TPP’s multinational training teams played an active role in coordinating training delivery and supporting the UN Secretariat’s mission. A trainee from Bhutan who participated in the HEE Operators’ Course and EHAT in Cambodia in November/December 2025 highlighted this collaborative approach noting that “Working through each exercise alongside others helped turn uncertainty into clarity and reinforced a strong sense of progress.”

From the host-country perspective, Cambodia’s National Centre for Peacekeeping Forces, Mines and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance (NPMEC) emphasised the programme’s contribution as: “The UNTPP training in Cambodia significantly enhanced professional skills across the three pillars of HEE, FMAC, and EHAT. The programme strengthened cooperation and enhanced cultural diversity awareness among participants from different nations and religious backgrounds, contributing to mutual understanding and effective teamwork in multinational training programmes.” Together, these perspectives highlight how TPP integrated trainings benefit both trainee peacekeepers and host institutions. For trainees, integrated courses offer practical, field-based experience, exposure to multinational working environments, and the opportunity to build crucial real-world skills before mission deployment. For host countries, delivering training demonstrates their leadership and concrete contribution to strengthening UN peacekeeping, while also enhancing national capacity, facilitating knowledge transfer, and reinforcing regional cooperation.

Conclusion

As TPP enters its second decade, Cambodia’s role as a rotational host in the ASEAN region from 2024 to 2026 perfectly exemplifies the value of TPP’s multinational, concurrent training model in strengthening peacekeeping operational preparedness. These efforts are aligned with broader ASEAN–UN cooperation frameworks, including the ASEAN–UN Plan of Action (2026–2030), which recognised the TPP as a key mechanism for strengthening peacekeeping capacity across the region. With future rotational hosting commitments confirmed for 2027 onwards, the peacekeeping training rotational model in the ASEAN region provides a sustainable pathway for continued peacekeeping capacity growth across the Asia Pacific region. Cambodia’s contribution during this cycle underscores how structured partnership—rooted in shared responsibility and regional ownership—can deliver tangible outcomes for quality peacekeeping.