Navy
NATO's Lion In The Balkans
British troops are undergoing training with Albanian forces in the country's mountains, watched by Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon.
They are there participating in Exercise Albanian Lion 2016, that has been running from September 17th. It's the fifth edition of the exercise, involving around 1,500 British and 250 Albanian troops.
Sir Michael said Albania is an important ally for Britain and the country would see more training take place there following investment from the UK government into local training areas:
"Albania is a stable democracy in an unstable region and thus a key ally here, and working ever more closely with us in NATO, and that's important for the future".
This is a relatively new alliance, and from next year the UK will be working with Albania in the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force.
Sir Michael is the first defence secretary to visit Albania, and from next year Britain will have a permanent defence attaché based there.
The Albanian Army, meanwhile, are improving the training facilities at Biza. It's a £60,000 investment, aimed at being environmentally friendly whilst blending in with the surroundings. Lt Floyd Fountain, of the Burma Troop Royal Engineers, said:
"What we want to do is create an area of hard standing [where vehicles can be parked], which is environmentally friendly... which they can use for years to come. And also we can come and use it in the future."
In the last two weeks, the British have been demonstrating their methods for section attacks to the Albanians.
The exercise is due to last until October 8th.
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