Stress Mediterranean Ties, Nato Urged While Looking To The East, Members Must Also Embrace Southern Lands

As NATO presses ahead with its eastward expansion, several members are urging the alliance not to forget its southern neighbors and are pushing for greater ties with northern Africa and the Middle East.

Although immersed in the minutiae of bringing in new members from the former Soviet bloc, NATO countries meeting in Spain next month will also discuss improving ties with six Mediterranean countries - Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania.

“To help build a peaceful, friendly, economically vibrant Mediterranean region is a major strategic objective,” Secretary-General Javier Solana wrote in an article published recently in three Arab newspapers.

As they fly into Madrid for the summit, alliance leaders have only to glance at the map understand why Spain and Portugal are reminding them not to neglect their southern neighbors.

Lisbon is closer to violence-wracked Algiers, the capital of Algeria, than it is to Paris, while the southern tip of Spain lies less than 12 miles from the Moroccan coast.

By comparison, the plains of Poland and Hungary, two likely candidates in the first round of NATO expansion, can appear remote from Europe’s most westerly nations.

Other NATO allies on the Mediterranean, including France and Italy, have backed the call for tighter relations with countries to the south.

To meet concerns of southern allies, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1995 launched a “Mediterranean dialogue” with the six North African and Middle Eastern countries.

Solana’s predecessor as NATO chief, Willy Claes, said that the new links would help counter Islamic fundamentalism, which he warned was “at least as dangerous” as the communist threat once faced by alliance.