18 December 2018•Update: 19 December 2018
By Arif Yusuf
ERBIL, Iraq
The Netherlands will continue training Peshmerga forces loyal to northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said Tuesday.
Blok made the assertion at a joint press conference held with KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil, the KRG’s administrative capital.
The Netherlands, Blok confirmed to reporters, would continue training Peshmerga officers at Erbil’s Training Coordination Center.
“We will also provide military advisers as part of our joint reform plan for the region’s security sector,” he said.
Barzani, for his part, said the KRG had also asked the Netherlands for assistance in the local food and agriculture sector.
A delegation from the local private sector, he added, would soon visit the Netherlands to take part in a seminar.
In September, the Dutch government announced plans to deploy 50 soldiers to northern Iraq to secure areas recently liberated from the Daesh terrorist group.
The Dutch foreign minister arrived in Erbil from Baghdad earlier Monday as part of a tour of northern Iraq.
According to Iraq’s federal system, all agreements between foreign states and the KRG must first be approved by Baghdad.
