OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger and UN Under-Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office (UNOCT) Vladimir Voronkov today agreed to strengthen co-operation between the two organizations in addressing key challenges and supporting international efforts related to preventing and countering terrorism.
In the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Greminger and Voronkov in Vienna today, the OSCE and the UNOCT agreed, in line with their mandates, to explore and enhance co-operation on shared priority areas, including preventing violent extremism when conducive to terrorism, countering terrorist financing, border security and management, promoting rule of law-compliant responses to terrorism, countering the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes and enhancing the protection of critical infrastructure. They also agreed to strengthen efforts to work together in providing technical assistance to national authorities in these fields, upon the request of a state.
“From the outset, both organizations have worked in tandem in the field of preventing and countering terrorism. The signing of this Memorandum marks an important milestone in strengthening our co-operation and joint actions,” said Greminger. “We look forward to reinforcing our collaboration by launching and implementing joint projects for the benefit of our stakeholders.”
Voronkov emphasized that one of the top priorities of the UN is to strengthen international counter-terrorism co-operation at global, regional and national levels. Stressing that the OSCE is a vital regional partner for the UN, he said that, “We now need to focus on the practical implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding that was just signed to deliver real impact on the ground together.”
To ensure a closer working relationship, the OSCE Secretariat and the UNOCT have agreed to ensure optimum co-ordination between their work, as well as exploring joint projects to support the balanced implementation of the four pillars of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, the UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, as well as principles and commitments of the OSCE.
The two organizations plan to elaborate joint activities in a forthcoming biennial action plan.