U.S. troops in Indonesia for exercises

JAKARTA, June 23 (UPI) -- Around 1,000 U.S. troops have started major peacekeeping exercises with the Indonesian army to better understand the logistics issues surrounding international deployments.

U.S. soldiers, Marines and National Guard troops are in Indonesia with the Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat, as the Indonesian army is called, as part of Garuda Shield 09.

The exercise, which finishes on June 29, is this year's Global Peace Operations Initiative event for the Asia Pacific Region.

Training includes setting up and running a command post as well as humanitarian and civic assistance projects.

GPOI was set out by President George W. Bush in a speech at the United Nations in September 2004 as a means to improve peacekeeping operations in the face of mounting concern about efficiencies and overstretched resources.

The goal is to train around 75,000 troops worldwide, particularly in Africa, in peacekeeping skills by 2010. This includes improving logistics operations and supporting Italy in its efforts to set up a center to train police personnel destined for peacekeeping duties.

More than 3,300 personnel have been trained since GOPI was set up.

Countries that have been or will be involved in exercises are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tonga and Vietnam.

The main training centers are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia and Thailand.

New Zealand and Singapore have also participated in GPOI training events but did not receive funding through the GPOI organization.

Global Peacekeeping operations have grown at an annual rate of between 15 percent and 20 percent in the past several years, according to the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations 2009, published by New York University's Center on International Cooperation.

Even thought the increase was down to 8.7 percent in 2008, the United Nations and contributing countries have been concerned that resources are being stretched, the report noted.

The United Nations is the largest provider of peacekeepers globally, accounting for half the troops deployed. U.N. deployment numbers 80,000 military personnel, 12,000 police and thousands of civilian staff in the field.

Police numbers were up by a third in 2008 mainly because of EU deployments in Kosovo.

NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan grew by 20 percent in 2008. It went from 41,100 to 50,700, making it the largest peacekeeping force.

NATO commands two-fifths of global peacekeepers, and the U.S. contributions in Afghanistan and Kosovo under NATO made it the largest contributor in 2008.