Libya tests technical and military cooperation with Washington

Libyan Army Chief of Staff Salah Al-Din Al-Namroush met the US defence attaché in Tripoli to discuss expanding military and technical cooperation, as reported by The Libya Observer and agencies on May 20th.

The meeting aim was to strengthen cooperation between Libya’s military authorities and the United States in areas linked to training, operational capacity and technical development.

The two sides reviewed the outcomes of the Flintlock exercise which was presented as having a positive role in improving military readiness and developing operational capabilities.

The discussion also covered special forces training programmes and possible new areas of cooperation in modern technology and military development, the stated objective was to support the creation of a professional and capable military institution.

For Tripoli, cooperation with Washington offers a way to concretise a military reform through training, technical standards and institutional capacity rather than only through internal power balancing.

Libya’s security sector remains divided between rival authorities, armed formations and competing command structures. Any discussion about a professional military institution therefore carries an important political meaning.

For the United States this new agreement would fit into a wider scheme of limited but strategic engagement with Libya focused on security cooperation, counterterrorism, institutional rebuilding and the prevention of further instability in the central Mediterranean and northern Africa.

In Libya elite units and armed formations often operate in a fractures space between formal state structures and local power networks or militias.

External training may improve capacity but it also raises the question of which institutions benefit and whether they are subject to clear civilian authority.

Libya’s military diplomacy with Washington is moving through a slow but steady practical cooperation, which is helping improve technical standards but it will only become meaningful if it contributes to a unified and accountable security structure.

The Libya Observer plus agencies, maghrebi.org