Saudi Arabia holds unofficial talks with NATO
Saudi Arabia-USA, Politics, 10/6/2005

An official in NATO said that a Saudi Arabian official held non-official talks since several days with officials at the headquarters of NATO in Brussels.

The official who asked to be anonymous stressed that the NATO's secretary general Jakob Gijsbert (Jaap) de Hoop Scheffer received the Saudi delegation led by prince Turkey Bin Muhammad Saud al-Kaber, the assistant of the foreign minister for political affairs.

Observers consider that the visit represents the beginning of secret closeness between BATO and Riyadh, as NATO seeks to Saudi Arabia join what is called Istanbul cooperation initiative which was adopted in June 2004.

The initiative aims to establish cooperation relations with the Gulf states. So far it is joined by Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

NATO held talks with these countries in order to draw cooperation programs in the military field. In a conference held under the auspices of the NATO in Dubai recently, a high ranking Saudi official indicated the possibility of Riyadh joining to this initiative.

In addition to the Gulf states, NATO is making efforts to establish close relations with seven countries taking part in the Mediterranean dialogue which are Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Israel.

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