AMMAN — NATO announced on Tuesday the opening of its Liaison Office (NLO) in Amman, marking what it described as an “important milestone in the long-standing partnership” between Jordan and the Alliance.

 

To mark the occasion, NATO said in a statement that the Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood, Javier Colomina, visited Jordan, where he met with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dhaifallah Fayez.

 

“The opening of the Liaison Office stems from three decades during which NATO and Jordan have built a strategic partnership,” the statement said, adding that the Office marked the Alliance’s first political presence in the Middle East.

 

NATO said that the Liaison Office in Amman is “testament” to NATO’s commitment to reinforcing dialogue and cooperation with its partners, and enhancing its presence and visibility in the region, in line with its Southern Neighbourhood Action Plan.

 

“Building on nearly 30 years of cooperation, particularly through the Mediterranean Dialogue, the Office will create opportunities for NATO and Jordan to engage in regular dialogue on regional and global security developments, advance practical cooperation, including through the Defence Capacity Building (DCB) Initiative and to promote better public understanding of the partnership through joint outreach efforts,” it said.

 

NATO said that Colomina’s visit to Amman [on Tuesday] follows a sequence of important engagements between NATO and Jordan, including the participation of His Majesty King Abdullah in the Alliance’s December 2024 Meeting of Foreign Ministers, the signature of the bilateral legal agreement for the establishment of NLO Amman and the visit of the Partnerships and Cooperative Security Committee to Jordan in June, and the Special Representative’s first visit to Jordan in November 2024.

 

Colomina has told The Jordan Times that the NLO in Amman will push the existing cooperation between the Alliance and Jordan.

 

Interviewed on the sidelines of the December 2024 Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Colomina said, "There are many areas where the office will be helpful. It will mean a lot as well for the region, the Southern neighbourhood, since it’s the first ever NATO office in the Middle East, which will help people on the ground to better understand the threats and the challenges that you are confronted."