NATO meeting to focus on security challenges outside Europe

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO foreign ministers this week will discuss how the alliance can deal more effectively with security threats outside Europe, including by training the Iraqi military and cooperating with the European Union to choke off people-smuggling operations in the central Mediterranean.

Stoltenberg told a news conference the ministers will discuss a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to expand or transfer a NATO military training program for Iraqi officers already underway in Jordan to Iraq itself.

A Friday meeting of the NATO foreign ministers with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of neutral EU members Sweden and Finland will consider how the two international organizations can pool efforts to address "unprecedented security challenges," Stoltenberg said.