The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is heading to Turkey to attend meetings on the fringes of today's Nato summit.
Mr Ahern will be representing Ireland as members of Partnership for Peace (PfP) - the loose grouping of generally non-aligned/neutral states that participates in military operations around the world. Ireland only engages in peace-keeping and humanitarian operations.
The PfP discusses co-operation with Nato through Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. Two such meetings will be held today in Istanbul, where the agenda will be based on the discussions of Nato countries.
Mr Ahern stressed today that the meetings were "important for us and important for the role we play as a peace-keeping nation".
The meetings will also support moves towards more harmonious internationals relations after the weekend EU/US summit in Co Clare, which was seen as another step on the road to rapprochement between the US-led coalition which attacked Iraq last year and the many EU states opposed to the offensive.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi supported Mr Bush's assertion on Saturday that the divisions over Iraq had ended. "A new period of collaboration has begun," he declared after a dinner last night for the leaders of Nato's 26 nations.
Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer cited plans to widen the alliance's peace mission in Afghanistan as proof that relations have improved.
France and Germany led the opposition to the US-led operation with Washington response leading to acrimonious exchanges. Evidence of disagreement is still in evidence with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and France's President Jacques Chirac blocking Nato forces from operating on the Iraq as part of the process of creating stability in the Gulf state.