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Democratic Republic of Congo (Development)

The hon. Member for North-East Milton Keynes mentioned British military assistance training teams. My instinct is that the Congo would be unlikely to succeed in a bid in that respect, because those teams are in great demand all over the world, but does the Minister agree that security in the Congo is the No. 1 priority, the greatest imperative, and that there are things that the UK Government could probably do that do not involve providing military assistance, but that could help in time to improve the region's security? For example, we are heavily involved in EUSEC—the European security co-ordinating body in the Congo—and there are things that we can do as civilians in that theatre. In another theatre that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, Afghanistan, we could be involved in training and similar efforts to facilitate other trainers going out there, for example, to assist with security capacity in the region, but it does not have to be military assistance. Ultimately, DFID has a big role to play in that.