On 15 August, MINURSO observed the Independence Day of India by raising the country’s flag at the Mission HQ and at the Team Site Smara.

India is one of the largest troop contributing countries to the UN. Since 1948 more than 200,000 Indian blue helmets have been deployed to 49 UN peacekeeping missions. Today, almost 6000 military and police personnel from India serve in the cause of world peace around the globe. Since the 1960s, India has also sent women to peace operations, starting with Armed Forces Medical Series. In 2007, the country deployed the first ever all-women contingent in the UN, a Formed Police Unit in the UN Mission in Liberia.

In MINURSO, Indian military observers conduct their duties at the HQ in Laayoune and in the Mission’s Team Sites in the Desert.

In 2022, on the occasion of the 75^th anniversary of the independence of India, the Government  declared the commemoration to be in honor of “the history, culture and the achievements of the nation.”

The Indian flag flown formally is manufactured and supplied from only one place, located in Dharwad in Karnataka region using exclusively hand-spun and hand-woven cotton.