NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood

What are the Special Representative’s main responsibilities?

One of the priorities of the Special Representative is to strengthen dialogue and engagement with partner countries, international organisations and other relevant interlocutors in the region. This is achieved in part through regular high-level meetings at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and visits to Allied capitals and to the region.

The Special Representative also aims to make NATO’s approach more coherent and effective by coordinating the efforts of all relevant stakeholders working on the South across the Alliance. Reinforcing NATO’s existing tools for capacity-building, training and education in partner countries is key to increasing tailored practical cooperation.

Moreover, he is responsible for enhancing the visibility of NATO’s efforts in the South and strengthening NATO’s outreach to regional audiences, the media and civil society.

His tasks also include deepening synergies between NATO and other regional and international organisations working in the Middle East and Africa, such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the African Union and the League of Arab States.

In addition, the Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood is in charge of presenting an annual progress report, with recommendations to be agreed by Allies, on the Alliance’s initiatives in the region.

Which countries are NATO’s partners in the region? 

NATO maintains long-standing relations with various partner countries across its southern neighbourhood, most of which engage with NATO both bilaterally and multilaterally .

The Alliance does this through two partnership frameworks in the South: the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI). The MD, launched in 1994, is a NATO forum for cooperation with seven partners in the wider Mediterranean region, namely Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. Through the ICI, launched in 2004, NATO cooperates with four partner countries in the Gulf: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, including through the NATO-ICI Regional Centre in Kuwait. Oman, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council participate in selected activities within the ICI framework.

NATO also has a long-standing and fruitful partnership with Iraq, which engages in bilateral political dialogue and practical cooperation with the Alliance. Until recently, Iraq’s partnership with NATO was mainly centred around NATO Mission Iraq (NMI), a non-combat advisory mission launched in 2018. NMI assists Iraq in building more sustainable, transparent, inclusive and effective armed forces and security institutions, so that Iraqis themselves are better able to stabilise their country, fight terrorism and prevent the return of ISIS/Daesh. In August 2024, NATO and Iraq launched a high-level political dialogue to further build on the existing cooperation through NMI.

NATO remains engaged with other countries in the southern neighbourhood, including through the African Union.

When and why was the position created? 

NATO’s decision to step up engagement and cooperation with its southern neighbourhood stems from a year-long reflection process – launched by Allied Leaders at the NATO Vilnius Summit in July 2023 – on existing and emerging threats, challenges and opportunities in the region. An independent group of experts appointed by the NATO Secretary General led the first phase of this reflection process and, in May 2024, published a report.

Subsequently, Allies negotiated a set of concrete recommendations and, at the NATO Washington Summit in July 2024, adopted NATO’s Southern Neighbourhood Action Plan for a stronger, more strategic and result-oriented approach towards the region.

To ensure the implementation of the priorities set out in the action plan, Allied Leaders invited the NATO Secretary General to appoint a Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood.

As a result, in July 2024, the Secretary General appointed Javier Colomina as his Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood. This is the first time that NATO has a dedicated focal point for its work on and with the South. Javier Colomina is also NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy.