held at Lithuania’s Vilnius in July NATO decided to explore the possibility of opening an office in Amman, to foster bilateral practical and military cooperation with Jordan,” Colomina said. Colomina added NATO seeks to adopt an integrated approach that combines political follow-up on the relationship, military cooperation and practical action. To that end, the office will provide vision and political will, push the relationship to a new level, and help adopting a regional approach or an “native perspective,” because it will be the only NATO office in the region. The NATO office in Jordan will help to “deeply reflect” on challenges and threats in the south by listening to partners opinions as well as opportunities it provides to deal with various parties in the region, which is a matter on which a set of decisions will be built upon and will be approved at the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Washington, DC, next year, Colomina added. The office, according to the NATO official, would be a link between
the organization and other important parties in the region, but which are not among NATO’s current partners, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council, in order to learn about regional challenges, how they affect the stability of the Atlantic Ocean, and how to counter them, which is a very important role for the office if opened. He said that there are currently discussions taking place on opening a NATO office in Amman, and that the matter is “on track, but decision has not been made yet,” stressing that there is a great joint interest from the Kingdom and the NATO towards opening the office0. “The decision will be made soon,” Colomina projected. “NATO is aware that Jordan, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah, is an active player in the Middle East peace process, and the NATO office in Amman will not play a role in that context, because it does not have an official position towards it. Rather, it will mainly focus on following up on the relationship between with Jordan, and will have insights on cha
llenges and threats at the regional level,” Colomina explained. According to Colomina, NATO’s actual presence in Amman through the office “will certainly achieve a lot, as it will help bolstering cooperation, will make us closer indeed, and will undoubtedly have a very strong political vision and a political message with great influence.” “Opening the office will have great practical benefits for the relationship between NATO and Jordan, and will be seen as a very strong message from Jordan and NATO about a lasting partnership that we believe should be even stronger in the future,” Colomina concluded.
Source: Jordan News Agency