Netanyahu announced Wednesday that Israel would accept an invitation from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to open a permanent office at its Brussels headquarters, a move Turkey claimed it had blocked some five years ago.
The move represents a significant upgrade for Israel\’s ties to the 28-nation NATO. Israel is currently a partner in NATO\’s Mediterranean Dialogue, along with six other countries on the Mediterranean: Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Mauritania and Morocco.
“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 complete the process of accepting the credentials of its representative to NATO.
“The announcement comes after lengthy Israeli diplomatic efforts by the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the National Security Agency. Israel wants to thank its allies in the organization for their support and efforts on the issue,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.