§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
What form of military training by NATO of members of the Iraqi security forces is planned; and how this training will be funded. [HL4202]
§ Lord BachNATO's training mission in Iraq is assisting the Interim Government of Iraq to train their security forces and already provides training and mentoring of Iraqi Joint Headquarters personnel. The North Atlantic Council has recently agreed to expand the training mission, which is planned to include further training and mentoring of personnel in Iraq; the establishment of a NATO training and equipment co-ordination group; support to the establishment of a training, education and doctrine centre in Iraq; conducting and supporting training in the vicinity of Iraq; and training at NATO training and education facilities.
We expect NATO's assistance to be supported by a variety of resourcing mechanisms including national budgets, multi-national funding arrangements, Iraqi Interim Government funding, equipment donations, trust fund arrangements and existing NATO budgets.