By John Lee.
The NATO Secretary-General said on Thursday that he had received a new request from Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) to train and develop its military.
Jens Stoltenberg (pictured) told a news conference:
"We have said for some time that we are ready to help Libya. But of course any NATO assistance to Libya has to be based on request from the Libyan Government, from the Government of National Accord. This request was the request we received yesterday.
"So we are, we have just started to look into what kind of help and support but the request is about help for building security and defence institutions and that’s also what NATO has stated clearly that we are ready to help them with building institutions.
"It is extremely important to have good institutions, minister of defence, command, chief of staff, joint chief of staffs and other defence institutions because we need … Libya needs that framework to be able to develop their forces and stabilize their country. So we are working with the UN recognized Government of National Accord.
"I met with Prime Minister Sarraj several times and we met recently and now this request has been forwarded to NATO. So now we will start to work and look into exactly what kind of assistance we can provide but it’s related to institution building, helping them with building security and defence institutions. This can of course take place both in Libya but also outside Libya, that’s some of the issues that has not yet been decided."
(Source: NATO)
