GMF releases study on NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue

Titled ‘’The Future of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue: Perspective on Security, Strategy and Partnership’’, the 39-page study offers an independent assessment of the value and prospects for NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue against the changes in the security environment.  The release of the report was timed to coincide with NATO’s Brussels Summit, which approved a series of political and practical cooperation initiatives for a more strategic, focused and coherent Alliance approach to the Middle East and North Africa.  

Speaking to an audience of policy experts, academics, journalists and NATO officials at GMF headquarters in Brussels, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Ambassador Alejandro Alvargonzalez, said the Mediterranean Dialogue provides a unique forum through which Allies and partners from the Mediterranean region can discuss, assess and jointly address the security challenges. “We strongly believe that we are safer when our neighbors, too, are more secure”, Mr. Alvargonzalez said.  He added that Allies and partners share many security concerns, from socio-economic challenges to illicit trafficking of small arms, terrorism, and human trafficking.  Under these conditions, the need to foster a shared security community in political and practical terms was evident.  

Other panelists also discussed NATO’s role in the region and future opportunities for cooperation in the framework of the Mediterranean Dialogue. NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue began in 1994. It brings together NATO Allies and Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. Its premise is that transatlantic and Mediterranean security are closely linked.