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Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact to involve about 40 UN agencies

MOSCOW, November 7. /TASS/. The Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact will bring together about 40 United Nations agencies, Under Secretary General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) Vladimir Voronkov told reporters.

"There are about 40 UN agencies dealing with various aspects of the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, which contributes to the development of terrorism. These include the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Office of Counter-Terrorism, the International Organization for Migration and many others. Almost all the UN agencies tackling counter-terrorism issues have agreed to sign this document," Voronkov said.

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"We expect that the implementation of this idea will make it possible to ensure more balanced and well-coordinated actions within the United Nations, as well as to increase the efficiency of counter-terrorism activities," he went on to say. "Resources and funds are stretched too thin [nowadays], we should prevent that by bringing everything together and creating an effective mechanism," the UN under secretary added.

When speaking about the current Moscow meeting of intelligence agencies’ heads, which is dedicated to the fight against terrorism and involves 125 delegations from 80 countries, Voronkov said that it was "a very good practice." He pointed out that the number of countries participating in the meeting had been growing every year. Voronkov also said that such events were absolutely necessary "under the current situation, when the world is full of misunderstandings and competing interests." "We need to be guided by a practical agenda," he added.

"This agenda is not politicized. Everyone has been facing the scourge of terrorism, it is a global issue," the senior UN official noted.

"We all know how flexible and adventurous terrorists are, they act at the global level so only a global counter-action may lead us to success. This global counter-action should be totally practical and free of political discussions on what is better and what is worse, we need just to fight terrorism every single day," Voronkov stressed.

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