Army Corps General Luciano Portolano, commander of the Joint Force Summit Operational Command, yesterday reached Tripoli for a meeting with Libyan defense leaders. The meeting, which was part of the cooperation between the Italian Defense and the Libyan Defense, had as its theme the reclamation of explosive devices in the areas south of Tripoli, aimed at facilitating the return of displaced people to the their homes.
On his arrival in Tripoli, General Portolano was greeted by the Italian ambassador to Libya, Giuseppe Buccino and the commander of the Assistance and Support Mission in Libya (MIASIT), Brigadier General Maurizio Fronda.
The meeting took place in the presence of Ambassador Buccino and Libyan Minister of Defense ad interim, Ali Namroush.
After the introductory speech by the Italian ambassador, General Portolano expressed, by virtue of the historical relations of cooperation and geographical proximity between the two shores of the Mediterranean, the importance for the Italian defense of continuing to support Libya with interventions at support of the population and local institutions together with initiatives aimed at promoting the stabilization process of the country. In particular, in view of the tasks of MIASIT, it confirmed the technical support and resources of the Italian Defense necessary to assist the Libyan operations of reclamation and removal of explosive devices through "situation awareness of mine", of explosive traps and war residues together specific training sessions in favor of bomb disposal personnel involved in research and "monitoring and accompanying" activities.
Following the recent appeal launched by the National Accord Government (GNA) to the Italian government to carry out the reclamation of the neighborhoods in the southern area of Tripoli, MIASIT had started the cooperation activity between the two countries, in the context of the aforementioned reclamation, conducting two meetings with representatives of the Libyan military genius and a technical survey in the area of the capital most affected by mine clearance. In these areas, in fact, there were several victims among civilians caused by the explosion of mines as well as among the bomb squads of the Libyan military genius during the mine clearance attempts.
In this context, thanks to the synergistic action between the MAECI and the Ministry of Defense, the aforementioned support to the Libyan military engineers constitutes a significant cooperation initiative between Italy and Libya which is integrated, as regards the activities carried out by the MIASIT, to the articulated support in several sectors of intervention in order to provide a concrete contribution to the resolution of particular critical issues in the Libyan Defense sector.
The meeting and the visit of the commander of the Operational Command of Vertice Interforze represented a tangible sign of the will to actively support the local institutions, constituting a clear demonstration of how the missions carried out by our Armed Forces abroad are increasingly characterized as interministerial and inter-agency, as well as an expression of the commitment of the entire country system.
