11June 2003

Mediterranean Dialogue countries meet at NATO HQ The Ambassadors of Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia met their NATO counterparts at NATO HQ on 11 June for a briefing on the outcome of the Madrid Ministerial meetings of last week. It was also an opportunity to follow up on the measures put forward at the Prague Summit in 2002 to enhance dialogue on security matters of common concern and intensify cooperation. The inventory of possible areas of cooperation includes military education, training and doctrine to address basic operational requirements, military exercises, information exchange in the area of logistics, consultations on efforts against weapons of mass destruction, global humanitarian mine action, civil emergency planning, science and the environment, and many other areas. This was the fifth meeting of the Mediterranean Cooperation Group (MCG) held at Ambassadorial level with all seven partners of the Mediterranean Dialogue (19+7) since the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. Meetings between individual countries and the 19 NATO representatives (19+1) have also been held and each individual country develops an annual work programme with NATO. Additional information: Partnerships: NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue NATO Handbook: the North Atlantic Council