On 24-26 February 1999 a Conference on "The Mediterranean Dialogue and the New NATO" will take place in Valencia, Spain. The Conference is organized by the Spanish Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Defence together with the Spanish Centre for International Relations, the Generalitat of Valencia and the NATO Office of Information and Press.

At the Conference, the US Rand Corporation will present a report on "The Future of NATO's Initiative: Evolution and Next Steps" being a follow-up report to its results and recommendations on NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue presented in November 1997 at a Seminar in Rome.

Apart from the President of the Spanish Government, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence in Spain the participants in the Conference will be the Secretary General, the Deputy Secretary General together with Ambassadors from the Alliance, the three invited countries and the six Mediterranean Dialogue Countries. It is the first opportunity for NATO Ambassadors and the Mediterranean Dialogue countries to meet jointly to discuss the way ahead for NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue. As such, it is an important step towards greater interaction between NATO and Mediterranean Dialogue countries. This event is particularly timely before the Washington Summit as the Alliance considers how to move forward NATO's external adaptation, of which the Mediterranean Dialogue is an integral part.

NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue was launched in 1994 and currently involves six non-NATO countries of the Mediterranean region: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Dialogue reflects the Alliance's view that security in Europe is closely linked to security and stability in the Mediterranean. As such, it is an important component of the Alliance's policy of outreach and cooperation.

NATO PRESS RELEASE (99)22 24 February 1999

2. Secretary General's Remarks at the Conference on the Mediterranean Dialogue and the New NATO Valencia, 25 February 1999

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

...The Mediterranean Dialogue is among the youngest projects on NATO's post-Cold War agenda. Yet it has already shown its potential to evolve. We went from five Dialogue Partners to six. We went from a loose pattern of meetings to a structured one, through the creation of the Mediterranean Working Group two years ago. But most importantly, we have consistently roadened the agenda of the dialogue, adding cooperative activities in areas such as information, civil emergency planning, science, and crisis management. And we have created specific courses at our NATO schools, to mention but a few of the activities on our agenda.

Last year's decision by Alliance foreign ministers to establish "Contact Point Embassies" in Mediterranean Dialogue countries was another step in the right direction. It underlined once again that the Mediterranean dialogue has major evolutionary potential. And you can see from this that our range of cooperation fits closely to our broad concept of security.

Indeed, far more remains to be done. You will discuss the way ahead over the course of this conference. So let me just mention two areas where I see the dialogue heading.

The first area is further differentiation. We must enable the Mediterranean countries to shape this dialogue according to their specific needs - a dialogue of "variable geometry", as it were. We must provide each Partner with the opportunity to make its specific concerns heard. Indeed, the lack of a region-specific framework for cooperation is something our Dialogue Partners have repeatedly reminded us of.

The second area we need to explore more fully is the development of military cooperation. We could consider developing additional confidence-building measures in the military domain and increasing participation of Dialogue countries in peace support and other military-related activities - for those countries that would wish to participate. These would be areas where the Alliance clearly has a comparative advantage. They would thus highlight the complementary nature of the various Mediterranean initiatives.

Indeed, I would argue that the Mediterranean is a key issue where better coordination may offer huge payoffs. This is particularly true for the two organisations that are perhaps our most powerful instruments: NATO and the European Union. NATO and the EU are already shaping the European political, economic and security landscape for the better.

But they could certainly achieve more if there was more coherence between their policies. Such coherence could have synergistic effects in virtually all areas of security management. NATO and the EU working together towards the same strategic ends could thus have a decisive effect not only on the evolution of a peaceful, economically vibrant area to our South. It could also make a major contribution to the evolution of an outward-looking, democratic and prospering Russia, and of a secure and prosperous Central and Eastern Europe...

NATODOC 25 February 1999.