“I want to concentrate on public diplomacy,” he said. “We have to explain to people in Republika Srpska that NATO is not a military organisation, NATO is a civil organisation. Ambassadors in NATO are creating decisions, not soldiers. The military is only a part of NATO.”

"We can see how we can enhance military-to-military cooperation, interoperality and public diplomacy so that we can better explain Nato and what it does and we at Nato can better understand the region," he told Gulf News.

During their meetings both NATO officials engaged with their counterparts of the Russian Ministry of Defence for an exchange of views on the way national and international institutions communicate with their publics.

The main theme was that Cairo speech carried a reconciliatory tone, different from the arrogance of the Bush administration, and meant America will rely more on ‘soft power’ rather than ‘military power’.

In the Lisbon Summit (2010), NATO decided to use Soft Power (the term which belongs to Joseph Samuel Nye – Harvard University Professor) for stabilisation of the Western Balkan Countries in the new millenium because it is not only cheaper and effective, but also this strategy brings long-range stability to the region and provides prosperity and more democratic rights to these nations.

A soft-power campaign that included documentary films on Russian television and denunciations by Russian officials of human rights violations preceded the uprising in April 2010 that overthrew Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev, a corrupt autocrat who had sometimes thwarted Russian interests, particularly regarding the American base, which the Russians wanted shut down.

For us, public diplomacy is very much an instrument of soft power. We seek to inform and engage people in our countries, but also far beyond. We are fully aware of some of the stereotypes about NATO that still drive public perceptions in some countries.

Deputy Minister Fransman and I have used the chief instruments of Public Diplomacy such as lectures, electronic media, publications etc. to put across and make known South Africa's engagements and thoughts on the Libyan crisis....I believe ours tonight is to make some reflections on and around the developments in relation to the crisis in Libya.