Strategic Assessment

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Israel on February 23-24, 2005, in the first official visit by a NATO secretary. The visit was intended to promote strategic cooperation between NATO and Israel, thus implementing a resolution passed during the NATO summit held in Istanbul on June 28-29, 2004, calling for increasing strategic cooperation between NATO and specific Mediterranean countries, including Israel. The issues intended in the context of cooperation are activities against terrorism; activities against weapons of mass destruction; guaranteeing of borders; preparations for mass disasters and states of emergency; participation in NATO maneuvers; consultations regarding defense reforms, including relations between the political and military levels; and the prevention of arms and drug smuggling.