Ashraf AboArafe
Thursday, May 4
Today, Mr. Sameh Shoukry participated in the activities of the 21st session of the Coordinating Committee meeting of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF), in the presence of Mr. Charles Fries, Deputy Secretary-General of the European Union Foreign Service, and Ambassador Ismail Chakouri, Director of the Comprehensive Issues Department at the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representing the outgoing presidency. its mandate for the Forum, as well as the representatives of the Member States of the Forum.
In a statement by Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid, the official spokesman and director of the Public Diplomacy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he indicated that the foreign minister witnessed during the meeting Egypt’s official handover of the co-chairmanship of the forum, succeeding the sister Kingdom of Morocco for a period of two years, as Egypt holds the co-chairmanship with the European Union.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered a speech in which he indicated that Egypt’s assumption of the co-chairmanship of the forum comes at a time when the international community is facing huge challenges that exacerbate the causes of terrorism, which requires strengthening international cooperation frameworks to combat this phenomenon, noting that despite the international successes achieved in In the field of combating terrorism and defeating ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the danger of this phenomenon is still present and efforts must be continued to address it.
The Foreign Minister highlighted Egypt’s success in overcoming the terrorist threats it faced over the past decade thanks to the sacrifices of the armed forces and policemen, and the Egyptian state’s adoption of a comprehensive approach that includes the security confrontation of terrorism and extends to the economic, social, developmental and cultural aspects, including the intellectual aspect to refute extremist and extremist discourse that leads to terrorism.
Minister Shoukry also reviewed the priorities that will be adopted by the Egyptian-European joint presidency of the forum, foremost of which is combating terrorism in the African continent by addressing the roots of terrorism and building national capacities, in addition to enhancing the effectiveness of the forum as a forum concerned with developing conceptual frameworks for combating terrorism and extremism issues, as well as supporting women’s participation in The Forum’s various activities and initiatives, and giving more attention to the role of women in dealing with issues of combating terrorism and extremism, including the issue of criminal justice.
Ambassador Abu Zeid revealed that the activities of today’s meeting of the Coordination Committee include a number of closed sessions for member states that deal with many issues of importance in the field of combating terrorism and extremism, on top of which are the challenges facing efforts to combat terrorism in the African continent, as well as reviewing the goals and action plan of the presidency. The joint Egyptian-European forum, and the activity of the sub-working groups emanating from it and their plans during the coming period. A side event was also organized on the sidelines of the meeting, in cooperation with the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law, on enhancing an integrated response to terrorist threats from an African perspective.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson concluded his remarks by stressing the importance of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum for its role in approving guiding documents on which the international counter-terrorism mechanisms can build on to develop the conceptual foundations for counter-terrorism issues, explaining that Egypt has always been an active member within the framework of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum, as it had previously She chaired the Capacity Building Working Group in East Africa from 2017 to 2022 jointly with the European Union, and previously chaired the Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group jointly with the United States between 2011 and 2017.
