NATO seeks to develop coop. with Gulf partners

BRUSSELS, June 19 (KUNA) -- NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller said Monday that the 29-member Alliance is "working very much with our partners in the Gulf." "We had the opportunity to open a new training centre in Kuwait just in January and we still see real opportunities there to see defence institution building, defence capacity building, working on important practical measures such as cleaning up unexploded ordinance, improvised explosive devices," she told reporters ahead of a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg today.
"Those are very practical areas. But also helping to build defence institutions. So this is a great opportunity and we will continue to do everything we can to build and develop our cooperation with our partners in the Gulf," she said.
The NATO deputy chief said that "we are doing everything we can in order to facilitate cooperation in the area, but NATOs main focus and efforts are related to defence capacity building and really working with our partners to look for ways to improve their institutions and their overall training." Gottemoeller added that she will discuss at length EU-NATO cooperation in the meeting with NATO foreign ministers, especially in defence matters. (end) nk.mt