NATO’s Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood visits Geneva to strengthen partnerships and multilateral dialogue
NATO’s Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood, Mr. Javier Colomina, conducted a high-level visit to Geneva on 22-23 May 2025 – the first by a NATO Senior official since the opening of the NATO Liaison Office to the International Organisations in Geneva in August 2024. His visit underscored NATO’s commitment to dialogue, multilateralism and cooperative security with its partners in the Southern Neighbourhood, ahead of the NATO Summit in The Hague, this June.
During his visit, Mr. Colomina held bilateral consultations with the Permanent Representatives of the Members of the League of Arab States (LAS), hosted by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain, together with the Permanent Delegation of the League of Arab States to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva. Mr. Colomina reaffirmed the importance of NATO’s cooperation with the LAS and outlined NATO’s growing strategic focus on the Southern Neighbourhood. He illustrated the progress made on the implementation of NATO’s Southern Neighbourhood Action Plan approved at the NATO Summit in Washington D.C. last July, his mandate as NATO’s Special Representative for Southern Neighbourhood, and the Alliance’s robust network of partnerships and broad engagement with key stakeholders across the Middle East and Africa.
While in Geneva, the Special Representative also delivered a keynote address at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), during an event co-sponsored by NATO and entitled “Shaping Cooperative Security: NATO and Southern Partners before the Hague Summit 2025.” The event brought together diplomats from the Southern Neighbourhood and policymakers, including from NATO partners, as well as civil society representatives, legal experts, academics, researchers and journalists to explore the evolving security environment and NATO’s engagement with its southern partners.
Additionally, Mr. Colomina held discussions with NATO Allies’ Permanent Representatives based in Geneva, United Nations officials, the leadership of the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) and members of the humanitarian community.