NATO wants to come closer, but Egypt remains cautious. Magda El-Ghitany reports on developments in the Mediterranean Dialogue The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is marking 10 years of growing cooperation with the Mediterranean countries by offering its new southern friends a more formal partnership. This partnership will be part of the steps to implement the NATO Istanbul Cooperation Initiative that was launched last June with an eye on expanding cooperation to cover all of the Middle East. Late last week, in Brussels, the foreign ministers of 26 NATO member states met over a working dinner with their counterparts from their seven Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) "friends" -- Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia, Algeria and Jordan -- to assess a decade of cooperation and consider ways of enhancing this collaboration to better serve the interests of both sides. During the working dinner, NATO Secretary- General Joop de Hoop Scheffer expressed the organisation's interest in upgrading its relations with the MD friends. More concretely, Scheffer suggested that the time has come for the parties to the dialogue to become "partners". According to the secretary- general, the two sides have a shared and growing interest in taking their relationship a step further, especially in areas related to the "common threats of terrorism, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and failed states." This cooperation, Scheffer promised, will be pursued in a pressure- free atmosphere where nothing is "imposed" and where negotiations and discussions are a "two-way street [to find] practical ways of working together". Scheffer also acknowledged the "national and regional uniqueness" of each MD member and promised that this uniqueness will be "respected" by his organisation. Scheffer is planning a tour around the Mediterranean to pick up his discussions with senior Mediterranean officials. Reactions to the offer were far from identical on the part of the seven members. Most MD participants seemed to be upbeat about the prospect, but a few countries, including Egypt, advocated a cautious reaction. "This is not the first time that NATO has expressed its interest" in strengthening its ties with the MD member states, said one Egyptian diplomatic source. However, he added, there are several issues that Cairo will have to weigh carefully before advancing any further in this direction. One thing that Cairo needs to consider is the impact such a move might have on its overall policy of avoiding alliances, whether with or against any particular nation or group of nations. Egyptian diplomats stress that the binding concept of maintaining good relations with all countries and groupings remain an integral part of Egyptian diplomacy. They argue that it is not in the interests of a regional power such as Egypt to start taking sides. Moreover, Cairo is worried about the impact which advancing its relations with NATO might have on public opinion. Closer relations with an organisation that is widely perceived in Egypt and the Arab world to be party to a number of Western attempts to impose its hegemonic plans on the Arab and Muslim countries are unlikely to be popular with the street. As a leading Arab and Muslim state, Egypt has to be very sensitive about this issue, the source insisted. He added, "if NATO manages to improve its image in the Middle East, by adopting fair policies and actions, it will become easier for Egypt to make a positive response to the MD upgrading offer." Egypt's objections are not exclusively theoretical. Cairo also has some very specific concerns in relation to NATO's failure to present its MD friends in Brussels with a specific and detailed plan of how the process of friends- turning-partners will proceed. According to officials, Egypt cannot afford to jump into a process that is not clearly defined in advance -- certainly not with its many current regional concerns in Palestine, Iraq and Sudan. Nevertheless, Egyptian diplomats say that the issue will be the subject of concerted discussions between Cairo and Brussels. Egypt is also planning consultations with other Arab MD members. Meanwhile, Cairo is keen to get a positive reaction from NATO to Syria, Libya, and Lebanon joining the MD. This, Egyptian diplomats say, would help enhance the prospects for cooperation around the Mediterranean with NATO and would also improve the image of NATO in the region, as an organisation that seeks good relations with these three Arab states irrespective of Israel's attitude towards them. Central to this image-enhancing mission, Cairo insists, is for NATO to take a clear line on Israeli violations of stability and security requirements in the Middle East. In statements made during the MD meeting in Brussels last Thursday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit stressed that NATO has to consider the negative impact of the Israeli nuclear arsenal on the peace and stability in the Middle East. Abul-Gheit also made it very clear that, at this point in time, it is still premature to talk of a growing role for NATO in facilitating an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Egyptian diplomats say that Cairo can appreciate NATO's growing interest in upgrading relations with the MD states. However, they suggest that the offer has to be put in the right context of regional political concerns. They also note that Egypt is far from being the only country that is apprehensive at the prospect of warmer relations with NATO. Two weeks before the Brussels meeting, Algerian President Abdul- Aziz Bouteflika turned down a request by Scheffer to include Algerian military forces in a worldwide peace-keeping operation that NATO is planning to establish. Moreover, in Brussels, Algerian Foreign Minister Abdul-Aziz Belkhadim argued that Arab- Mediterranean relations with NATO are unlikely to witness a serious breakthrough as long as the organisation fails to take a clear stance on Arab political and security rights. For their part, NATO officials say that they can appreciate some of the concerns voiced in certain Arab capitals over the potential impact of closer cooperation with the military pact. However, they hasten to add that sooner rather than later, these countries -- including the Arab Gulf states -- will realise that NATO's initiative is meant to upgrade cooperation based on a shared conception of mutual interests, and not to impose any US or other Western plans on the region.
