Egypt assumes co-chairmanship of Global Counterterrorism Forum

CAIRO – 4 May 2023: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shourky witnessed the ceremony of Egypt's assuming co-chairmanship of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) with the European Union on Thursday, announced the Ministry in a statement.

In April 2022, both sides were elected by the coordination committee to chair the forum for two years, succeeding Canada and Morocco.

 

Egypt's assumption of the GCTF co-chairmanship comes at a time when the international community is facing huge challenges that exacerbate the causes of terrorism, said Shoukry in a speech at the ceremony on Thursday.

He added that this requires strengthening international cooperation frameworks to combat this phenomenon, noting that despite 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 of the armed forces and policemen, besides the adoption of moderate intellectual ideology to combat extremist discourse that leads to terrorism.

Talking about EU/Egypt’s role in the coming two years, Shoukry said that the priorities that will be adopted include combating terrorism in the African continent by addressing the roots of terrorism and building national capacities, in addition to enhancing the effectiveness of the counter-terrorism forum and supporting women's participation in forum's various activities and initiatives.

The GCTF was founded in 2011 as a multilateral mechanism that offers a platform for counterterrorism officials to exchange experience and knowledge of relevant best practices. That comes in coordination with counterterrorism UN agencies, and regional and international organizations.

Egypt is one of the founding states of the 30-member forum and has been co-chairing since 2017, along with the EU, the task force whose mission is the anti-terrorism capacity-building of East African states. Prior to that post, Egypt and the United States co-chaired the Criminal Justice and Rule of Law task force in 2011-2017.

Additional reporting by Noha El Tawil