Abu Dhabi: A meeting of the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Working Group, part of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), was held in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
Officials from different countries and founding members of the GCTF attended the meeting.
Mahash Saeed Al Hameli, Director of International Cooperation at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighted in the opening speech that GCTF's mission is to enable governments and communities to effectively prevent violent extremism.
“The GCTF is a highly visible example of international efforts, bringing together national and international counterterrorism officials, experts and practitioners,” he said.
Al Hameli noted that three years after its foundation, the Forum had established partnerships with more than 40 countries and organisations for promotion and implementation of counterterrorism initiatives.
The participants took note of the statement issued recently by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs which highlighted the serious challenges the world is witnessing, and amongst the greatest of these is terrorism.
They also commended UAE's call for cooperation and coordination amongst the international community, taking advantage of the existing institutional framework, and for adopting a clear strategy for countering terrorist and extremist groups that should entail a clear categorisation of all these groups on the basis of both their ideology and their violent actions.
High on the meeting's agenda were efforts to counter the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters and the importance of international cooperation to combat it.
A draft of Abu Dhabi Memorandum -- an initiative by the Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism – cites good practices for engaging educational institutions to counter violent extremism.
