New York: South Sudan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Akuei Bona Malwal has thanked India for its support and valuable advice given to his country

He added that Juba is grateful for its friendship with New Delhi.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Malwal said, "Allow me, President, to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the outgoing delegations of Kenya and India for their support and valuable advice offered to my country and our mission for the last two years," according to the video shared by Indian Counsellor Pratik Mathur on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

"They serve on this council. We will be forever grateful for their friendship with the people of South Sudan," he added.

Sharing the video of Malwal's address in UNGA on Twitter, Mathur said, "A friend in need, is a friend indeed. PR of South Sudan, the youngest @UN member state, making a special mention of our support and #friendship for the Global South at the #UNSC meeting [?]today."

In the last week of January, Counsellor at India's Permanent Mission to United Nations reiterated India's strong support via UN Mission in South Sudan.

"At @UNPeacebuilding Commission's meeting on South Sudan, Counsellor @PratikMathur1 expressed India's strong support via @unmissmedia (#India provides 2400+ peacekeepers) & bilaterally to support peace process & capacity building in #SouthSudan in the journey for peace," tweeted Mathur.

Recently, India deployed an all-woman platoon of peacekeepers as part of the Indian Battalion to the United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei (on the border between South Sudan and Sudan).

The Abyei Area is a border area between South Sudan and Sudan that has been granted "special administrative status" by the 2004 Protocol on the Resolution of the Abyei Conflict (Abyei Protocol) in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War.

This is India's largest single unit of women peacekeepers in a UN mission since the deployment of the first-ever all-woman contingent in Liberia in 2007.