BELGIUM: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance will set up a small team of advisors to support Libya in building defence institutions

Record ID: 860535

  • Title: BELGIUM: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance will set up a small team of advisors to support Libya in building defence institutions
  • Date: 22nd October 2013
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 22, 2013) (REUTERS) FLAGS OUTSIDE NATO HEADQUARTERS NATO FLAG
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2013 12:00
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  • Location: Belgium
  • City:
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4J4TEWTZD5Y7IAOQZWJMS7L3W
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  • Story Text: NATO has agreed to a Libyan request to advise it on strengthening its security forces, lending support to a country where powerful militias have stoked fears of a slide into anarchy.
    NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the 28-nation alliance would set up an advisory team to help Libya building its defence institutions.

    "Yes, we have responded positively to a request from the Libyan government. The purpose of this advisory effort is to help the Libyan authorities build defence institutions, like for instance a modern defence ministry or general staff of the military. It could also be to help the Libyan authorities to develop what we call a security architecture, how to structure the defence sector," Rasmussen told reporters on Tuesday (October 22) at the start of a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels.
    Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan asked NATO for technical advice and help with training in May and the alliance later sent experts to the country to see how it could help.
    The request for help was given added urgency by Zeidan's brief kidnapping by militia members this month.
    Two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in an Arab Spring-inspired uprising, Libya's fragile government is crippled by infighting and unable to disarm former militia fighters in a country awash with weapons from his four-decade rule.

    "There are a number of very big challenges in Libya ranging from border security to the integration of the militias to the proper training of an army under proper civilian control. This is the transition from decades of no effective structure of government to trying to create a modern state and we should help wherever we can and however we can," British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said on his way into the meeting.
    NATO said its advisers would work in close co-ordination with other international organisations and individual NATO members.
    NATO played a critical role in toppling Gaddafi. The Western alliance imposed a no-fly zone and used air power to try to prevent his forces attacking civilian areas held by rebels.
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