UN General Assembly
1995

a United Nations rapid deployment brigade, which was distributed to all Member States last April. But the idea of a United Nations brigade should be seen as a contribution to the wider debate on United Nations peace operations. The most logical manner to address the problem of rapid response would be, in my opinion, a small, standing United Nations force which could fill the time lag between a Security Council decision and the deployment of national contingents. However, the Netherlands will support and actively contribute to any proposal that represents an intermediate step towards the longer-term objective of a United Nations force for rapid deployment. Against this background, we applaud the Canadian study on a United Nations rapid-reaction capability. Among other things, it recommends, as our colleague Mr. Ouellet pointed out, setting up a United Nations planning cell, which could function as a mobile headquarters and be part of the vanguard concept. That is, it could be the nucleus of a force composed of national contingents under the United Nations stand-by arrangements system. We