Israel to open permanent office at NATO HQ, five years after Turkey blocked move

NATO's treaty obligates the member states to militarily defend one another in time of attack, but that does not extend to the alliance’s some 40 partner countries.

By HERB KEINON
Updated: MAY 5, 2016 03:22
Israel to open permanent office at NATO HQ
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday that Israel will open a permanent office at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Brussels headquarters, a move Turkey blocked some five years ago.
The move represents a significant upgrade for Israel’s ties to the 28-nation alliance.
Israel is currently a partner in NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue, along with six other countries: Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Mauritania and Morocco.
Jordan was also invited to open a permanent mission at NATO Headquarters, as were three members of the alliance’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative: Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
“This is something we worked on for many years,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “I think this is important to Israel’s standing in the world. The countries of the world want to cooperate with us because of our determined struggle against terrorism, because of our technological knowledge, our intelligence deployment and other reasons.”
Late Tuesday night the Foreign Ministry said that NATO informed Israel that it would be able to open an office at the organization’s headquarters and undertake the process of submitting its credentials to the Western alliance.
“The announcement comes after lengthy Israeli diplomatic efforts by the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the National Security Council. Israel wants to thank its allies in the organization for their support and efforts on the issue,” a Foreign Ministry statement said. According to government officials, the US, Canada and Germany were instrumental in moving the upgrade through.
Foreign Ministry director- general Dore Gold explained the significance of the move by saying that “anytime Israel becomes integrated into global alliance systems, that is an asset to the security of the state.
Our position is that Israel must defend itself by itself, but having strong allies who identify threats similar to the way we do is definitely important.”
In September 2011, then-foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu (who is now the prime minister) told the Turkish media that his country had succeeded in blocking an Israeli attempt to open an office at NATO headquarters.
“Israel recently made an attempt to open an office at NATO [headquarters] in Brussels. We said we would veto this attempt and the issue was not even put on the agenda,” he said at the time, when tension between Jerusalem and Ankara was at its fever pitch because of the Mavi Marmara incident that took place the previous year.
Because of the Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey – a NATO member – blocked Israel’s participation in various NATO meetings and maneuvers. Nevertheless, Israel’s cooperation with the Western alliance continued to develop, particularly in areas dealing with counterterrorism.
One official warned against reading too much into Turkey not standing in the way of the upgrade this time, and extrapolating this to mean that the two countries are on the verge of signing a much discussed reconciliation agreement.
“This was a decision made by NATO as a whole,” the official said.
Decisions of this nature require consensus inside the organization, another official said.
Netanyahu called the move an “important step” that will enhance the state’s security.
NATO’s treaty obligates the member states to militarily defend one another in time of attack, but that does not extend to the alliance’s some 40 partner countries.
In practical terms, what the move means is that Israel will now have a permanent office in the NATO compound.
The significance is that the country’s representatives will be in closer contact on a regular basis with representatives from the NATO and NATO-partner states.
Israel will be represented by its envoy to the European Union in Brussels, David Walzer.


Related Tags
nato and israel