Israel on Thursday opened a new office at the headquarters of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Brussels, that counts 28 nations as its members. Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Yair Golan of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) assisted in the opening, Ynet News reported.
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This is Israel's first NATO office and was the result of May 2016 approval by the North Atlantic Council that let Israel and four other non-NATO members (Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait) to open diplomatic missions at its headquarters in Brussels.
The office would let NATO and Israel develop a closer working relationship between the two. Israel will become a partner to the organisation and not a member.
NATO also accepted the credentials submitted by Roni Leshno Yaar, who will become the first Israeli representative to NATO.
Previously, NATO member Turkey had been blocking Israel's interest to strengthen its ties with the organisation. But since then Ankara and Tel Aviv have signed a reconciliation agreement and the Turkish reservations have been withdrawn.
Major General Yair Golan also met with the military heads of several Arab states, namely Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia, and others.
Previously, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while welcoming the NATO decision to allow opening up office said, "I welcome the NATO statement inviting the State of Israel to open an office at the organization's headquarters. This is a goal that we have worked on for many years. I announce that Israel will accept the invitation; we will open an office soon. I think that this is also an important expression of Israel's standing in the world. The countries of the world are looking to cooperate with us due to, inter alia, our determined fight against terrorism, our technological know-how and our intelligence services."
The rise of the ISIS is something that Israel has been worried about, apart from its traditional threats like Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
NATO was founded in 1949 and it is an inter-governmental military alliance. It pledges to "safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means."
Since the launch of Mediterranean Dialogue, which included seven countries, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania in late 1994, Israel and NATO have been involved in enhancing security cooperation in the region based on scientific research, innovation, and knowledge exchange. It also includes military dimension with military exercises, courses and academic activities.
But following the 9/11, NATO started to recognise the contribution and value that the Mediterranean nations brought to fight terror.
Israel accepted to take part in Individual Cooperation Program (ICP) agreement, which was part of the Istanbul Summit in 2004. Later in 2005, Israel became the first of the Mediterranean nations to accept NATO's proposal to join the ICP and signed the agreement in October 2006.
