Mali

Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes Excerpts

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

The noble Lord takes me into territory outside the remit of this Question. Obviously, he is a great expert on that part of the world. There are concerns across the countries in north Africa and further into Africa and, with this support for the French, we will certainly wish that to be contained within Mali.

[Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes]

My Lords, how many of our EU partners are making contributions of anything like that which my noble friend has described in this Statement?

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

That is what is under discussion at the moment. The EU is currently meeting to discuss how it can contribute to that. We have said that we will offer up to 200 personnel for training. They may not all be required because other EU countries may submit more. That is what we are waiting to see from the outcome of these discussions, but we have set a maximum on our contribution.