The Lebanese Army signed 3 agreements with France as part of the latter’s defensive plan with Lebanon, the French Embassy in Beirut said on Monday.
In a statement, the French Embassy said the agreements were signed on Monday during a meeting that included the Commander of the Lebanese Army, Gen. Joseph Aoun, and several Lebanese and French military officers.
The first agreement is related to France‘s funding to build a joint maritime rescue center in Beirut‘s naval base.
This project, the statement said, is at “the heart of bilateral maritime cooperation” and will enable Lebanon to obtain “a naval force capable of exercising full sovereignty over its territorial waters and providing assistance to boats of refugees at risk.”
The second agreement outlines the basis for establishing a military-dog-training center.
This comes within the framework of the program that aims at developing the Lebanese Army‘s capacity, implemented by France since 2017 to enhance the Army’s ability to detect explosives and fight terrorism and to develop the Regional School for Humanitarian Demining in Lebanon.
Finally, the third agreement concerns donating equipment for mountain warfare, with the goal of enhancing the Lebanese Army‘s capacity to fight in rough terrain.
The Embassy’s statement noted that the three agreements’ signature reflects France‘s “keenness to develop military cooperation” with Lebanon.
France has supplied the Lebanese Army with nearly €60-million’s worth of equipment since 2017 and trained hundreds of personnel in France and Lebanon.
The Lebanese Army recently partook in an urban combat training session with French troops in Lebanon.
