Six ships of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) visited the Port of Haifa from 31 March to 5 April 2008 as part of this year's Port Visit Programme. First day of the visit has been conducted a joint NATO-Israel naval exercise PASSEX. The visit allowed the NATO force to foster relationship with civilian and military authorities. In this context, the Maritime Group visit was a unique opportunity to inform national authorities and the local population of the Maritime Group's capabilities and ongoing activities.

SNMG2 ships that visited Haifa included the flagship of the Group, the TCG Salihreis (Turkey), USS Gonzales (United States), HS Hydra (Greece), HMS Somerset (UK), FGS Niedersahsen (Germany) and ITS Euro (Italy). The Commander of the SNMG2 is Rear Admiral Sinan Ertugrul of the Turkish Navy.

SNMG2 is a permanently activated multinational NATO maritime force and it was created as a high readiness group. It is mobile and flexible across the broad spectrum of missions from peace to conflict. The Group is part of the maritime component of the NATO Force under the Command of the Allied Maritime Component of Naples. Units of SNMG2 participate in Operation Active Endeavour, a Mediterranean-wide counter terrorism operation that has been ongoing for the past seven years. In addition to operational duties, it carries out exercises with Partnership for Peace and Mediterranean Dialogue countries along with an extensive training, and port visit programme.

This visit to Israel was part of the Mediterranean Dialogue programme, members of which are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Marocco and Tunisia.