Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, Head of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) concluded today a three-day visit to Cairo at the invitation of the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

During the visit, Mr. Voronkov met with General Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Interior; Ambassador Ihab Fawzi, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Affairs and International Security; and General Mohamed El Kishky, Assistant Defence Minister for International Cooperation. He also met with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, and visited the Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism.

The Under-Secretary-General commended Egypt’s leadership during its recent Chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee, under which “a number of crucial resolutions were adopted to upgrade the counter-terrorism responses of Member States,” he said.

Mr. Voronkov stressed that promoting international cooperation to prevent and counter terrorism in the context of all four pillars of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, is a high priority for the Secretary-General and the United Nations. Mr. Voronkov noted in a meeting with senior Egyptian officials and representatives of the diplomatic community organized by the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding, that the “UN Counter-Terrorism week,” which will encompass the sixth Review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of Member States that the Secretary-General has convened in New York in June, will be an unprecedented opportunity to enhance Member States’ collaboration.

The Under-Secretary-General also discussed with his interlocutors a number of areas of common interest in which the United Nations and the Arab Republic of Egypt could exchange good practices, including countering the financing of terrorism, strengthening border controls and aviation security, countering terrorist narratives, and the terrorist use of improvised explosive devices.

During his visit, Mr. Voronkov met with Mr. Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, to exchange views on the evolving terrorist threat at the regional level and strengthen collaboration between both organizations to effectively address it.

The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism was established in June 2017 to provide leadership on the implementation of General Assembly counter-terrorism mandates, to enhance coordination and coherence, and to strengthen the delivery of the United Nations counter-terrorism capacity building assistance to Member States.