HAIFA, Israel, June 6 (UPI) -- An Israeli corvette is scheduled to take part in a NATO exercise off Romania's coast later this month. It will be the first time an Israeli warship joins such an exercise and commanders say they hope it will lead to closer cooperation with NATO.
Israeli and Turkish warships, in cooperation with the U.S. Sixth Fleet, have been conducting annual joint search and rescue maneuvers in the eastern Mediterranean. Israel was often invited to observe NATO exercises and was recently asked to assign an officer to NATO headquarters in Naples, Italy. An intelligence officer is shortly expected to assume his new post there, after the arrangements are completed.
The air force last month took part in an 11-day NATO exercise in Europe. Sweden, which objected to Israel's participation, stayed away.
On Sunday a fleet of seven NATO warships from the United States, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands ended a week-long call in Haifa.
Those ships belong to one of NATO's standing response forces, SNMG2, and the Israeli corvette, Eilat, is to join their exercise at Constantsa, Romania, on June 18.
In a briefing on board the Spanish frigate, Blas de Lezo, the force's commander, Rear Adm. Teodoro Lopez Calderon, said the exercise, Cooperation Mako 06, would practice elements required for "interoperability" among navies.
He was referring to the ability to communicate, share data, and have the same naval or maritime picture in order to carry out joint missions.
According to Israel's Rear Adm. Yochay Ben Yosef, the forthcoming exercise is "tailor-made for us."
The participants, from some 10 nations, will spend a few days in working groups in Constantsa's port and then sail out to the Black Sea to practice counter-terror operations; anti-submarine warfare; observe mine-sweeping; practice boarding vessels and inspecting them; protection against air attacks; refueling at sea; and search and rescue operations including the evacuation of a coastal area that sustained a major disaster. They will also practice coping with crises in unstable areas, a military source said Tuesday.
"The main mission is how to fight against terrorists. Boarding ships, sharing data," Ben Yosef said.
NATO's Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Israel in February 2005 and told the Haaretz newspaper they highly value Israel's experience in combating terror, securing borders, curtailing the smuggling of light arms, and interception at sea.
Ben Yosef looked forward to the opportunity to exercise cooperation.
Navies around the globe, and Israel's small navy all the more so, realize they have to cooperate in order to cope with growing threats, including those of terrorists and pirates.
In a recent conference at Tel Aviv University, Israeli Navy Commander Vice Adm. David Ben-Besht cited the attacks on a U.S. destroyer off Yemen's coast, a French tanker in the Persian Gulf, a French passenger ship off Somalia's coast, and plans to attack two Israeli cruise ships in Turkey.
"It is really difficult for one country to control long shipping lanes," he noted.
The United States, with extensive NATO cooperation, is leading a new "global trend" to create regional alliances against maritime threats. "I hope that one day we shall find ourselves a part of these forces," Ben Besht said.
He recalled that during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and for a long time afterward, Israeli Navy vessels were as far as the center of the Mediterranean Sea to protect ships sailing to Israel. Most of the U.S. military aid to Israel during that war came by sea, he noted.
New Zealand acquired more war ships and joined the coalition in Iraq hoping that if it ever gets into trouble, the coalition will help it, he added.
"I don't suppose we can be part of international coalition such as the one in Iraq, but combating international terror is less provocative," he maintained.
Hence Israel "jumped at the opportunity" to send an officer to NATO's headquarters in Italy. "We are already part of that control center that includes most of the Mediterranean countries (and) that exchange information," he said.
Israel and NATO are now discussing a cooperation agreement, Calderon noted.
Ben Yosef envisaged cooperation against "international terror, and not Palestinian terror."
Ron Prosor, who just stepped down as the Foreign Ministry's director general, wrote on the eve of Scheffer's visit, "It has also become apparent to both sides that Israel... meets all the benchmarks of NATO membership."
A NATO umbrella would help secure Israel, but also restrict its freedom in combating Arab threats, observers noted.
The idea of joining NATO "is not on table," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev stressed Tuesday.
"We want a cooperative relationship... but joining is simply not on the table," he said.
Asked whether Israel would want such membership to deter an Iran with a nuclear bomb, Regev said: "What's your next question?"
