NATO’s Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Bettina Cadenbach visited Israel this week, for a series of meetings with senior officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces. These meetings included strategic reviews and assessments, as well as practical discussions on possible collaborations and also field visits.
Beyond the agenda of the meetings, the senior visit from Brussels reflected a political desire on both sides to deepen the ties between Israel and NATO and to expand cooperation. As far as the Israeli diplomacy was concerned, the visit made it possible to highlight the issue of ties with NATO, which normally gets swallowed up in the very long list of priorities of the Israeli security system.