NATO Deputy Secretary General visits Egypt and Jordan
On 25 May 2008, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero visited Egypt and held bilateral talks with H.E. Abu El-Gheit Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt; Gen. Omar Soliman Director of the General Intelligence Service of Egypt; and with Gen. Mohammed El-Assar Senior Advisor to the Minister of Defence of Egypt.
During his visit to Egypt, the NATO Deputy Secretary General delivered the keynote address at the conference on “NATO – Egypt: A Dialogue”, co-organized by the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs at the Diplomatic Club in Cairo, with the opening speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, H.E. Mr. Ahmed Abu El-Gheit, and with the interventions of NATO and Egyptians opinion leaders and academics.
The conference brought together opinion leaders, academics, parliamentarians, journalists and officials from the Arab Republic of Egypt and it followed-up the first conference co-organised by the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs in February 2006 in Cairo.
On 26 May the NATO Deputy Secretary General visited Amman to hold bilateral talks with the Foreign Minister of Jordan, H.E. Dr. Salaheddin Al-Bashir, the Chief of the General Defence Staff Gen. Kalid Jamal Sarayreh, and with the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Jordanian Parliament H.E. Mr. Mohammad Abu Hbab.
Ambassador Bisogniero's talks with high level government officials in Egypt and Jordan focused on the way forward in the political and practical cooperation under NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue.