The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egyp, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, met with the Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on 5 March 2007 at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels (Belgium). During this visit, the first of an Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs ever organized to NATO, the NATO Secretary General and the Foreign Minister discussed regional security situation and practical issues related to the future of NATO-Egypt cooperation; a cooperation rooted in the context of the Mediterranean Dialogue, decided at the June 2004 Istanbul Summit, between NATO and its Mediterranean Dialogue partners (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).
The Mediterranean Dialogue aims at contributing to regional security and stability, achieving better mutual understanding and dispelling any misconceptions about NATO among Dialogue countries and includes political and practical (including military) dimensions such as:
- Regular high level political consultations between NATO and Mediterranean Dialogue partners;
- Visits by NATO Senior Officials, including the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General, to Mediterranean Dialogue countries;
- Seminars, workshops and other practical activities in the fields of public diplomacy (information and press activities, scientific and environmental cooperation), civil emergency planning, crisis management, border security, small arms & light weapons, defence reform and defence economics, as well as consultations on terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD);
- Invitations to Dialogue countries to observe - and in some cases participate - in NATO/PfP military exercises, attend courses and other academic activities at the NATO School (SHAPE) in Oberammergau (Germany) and the NATO Defense College in Rome (Italy), and visit NATO military bodies.
Source: NATO
