NATO DELEGATION VISITS THE US HEADED BY BAGIS

NATO-PA Trans-Atlantic Commitee

The Chairman of the NATO-PA Transatlantic Sub Committee, Mr. Egemen Bagis, Istanbul MP for the Justice and Development Party and Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, and 35 members of the European Parliament, including former Italian Prime Minister Mr. Lamberto Dini and former Speaker of the Spanish Parliament Mr. Federico Trillo Figueroa, have made several contacts during their visit to the US at the end of June. NATO related subjects predominated the meetings, and Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East, cooperation between NATO and EU, the defense industry, transatlantic relations and the homeland security were discussed.

General Pace and Hon. Bagis taking quesitons from the delegation.

Meeting the committee, the former US Defense Secretary Mr. William Perry stated that Iran and North Korea are causing great problems, and that their aim is to solve these problems through diplomatic channels. In addition to the General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Mr. Eric Edelman US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs Mr. Dan Fried was another important name who has exchanged ideas with the committee. Mr. Fried stated that helping Iraq is necessary and that NATO and EU can cooperate on this issue.

Hon. Bağış during a presentation of a flight simulator.

When during a meeting Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) used the term "Islamic Terror", Mr. Egemen Bagis declared that using the term "terror that abuse Islam" is much more appropriate. Thanking him, Senator Smith stated

that he will be more careful about this in the future.

The committee was formed by representatives from Turkey, Bulgaria, Portugal, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, UK, USA, and Spain as well as members of the European Parliament. The committee also visited San Francisco after the meetings, and completed its visits on June 23.