BY : IANS



Defence Minister A.K. Antony will visit Indian Army contingents performing UN peacekeeping duties in Congo and Sudan.

'They are doing a very good job. I am going to meet them,' Antony told reporters on the sidelines of a function here at which he flagged in an Indian Army expedition that successfully scaled Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, last month.

'The visit will take place sometime before the parliament session (that is slated to begin mid-August),' the Indian Army chief, Gen. J.J. Singh, added.

This will be Antony's second visit abroad after assuming office nine months ago. He had travelled to Singapore in May for the Shangri La Dialogue regional security conference.

The minister is also slated to travel to Russia in October ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit for the annual summit between the two countries.

Before that, Antony will be visiting Indonesia and some other South-East Asian nations - and possibly South Korea - to shore up military ties with these countries as part of India's Look East policy.

A little under 3,000 Indian Army troops serve under the UN flag in Congo, where they are deployed in the restive Katanga province. Earlier this month, 500 were awarded the MONUC (United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) medal for their efforts in maintaining peace in the area.

Some 1,660 Indian Army troops are deployed in the Malakal sector of Sudan's Darfur region.

Apart from these hotspots, the Indian 'blue berets' as the peacekeepers are termed, also serve in Ethiopia/Eritrea, in Lebanon, and on the Golan Heights. Altogether, some 9,000 Indian Army soldiers and officers are deployed abroad as UN peacekeepers.