By John Lee.
NATO is to help Libya build up its defence institutions.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters:
"... we are also discussing what more we can do in Libya. Last week I spoke with Prime Minister Al-Sarraj; I expressed NATO’s support to his government, to the Government of National Accord, the UN-supported government.
"And we also discussed how NATO can provide help to build up the defence institutions, build capacity in Libya; and our expert teams will meet in the coming weeks to discuss more details.
"... what we do is based on request from Libya; our activities are totally demand-driven, meaning that we only do things that Libya wants us to do. We got the request in February, then I spoke with Al-Sarraj, the Prime Minister, last week, and we agreed that our teams should meet in the following weeks to discuss the details.
"What we are working on is how NATO can help Libya build up defence and security institutions, like a modern ministry of defence with democratic control of the armed forces, like a joint chief of staffs and intelligence services. We have to understand the importance of institutions, because that’s the foundation for security.
"Of course it’s important to train troops, but we have to make sure that when troops are trained they are part of a structure where you have democratic control and where troops are used in a good way. So that’s the reason why we are working with Libya on how we can build defence institutions."
(Source: NATO)
