New York, 29-30 June 2026 – Deputy Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Mr. Farid Damirli addressed the Fourth UN High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter Terrorism Agencies organized during the Counter Terrorism Week under the theme “A Future Free From Terrorism: Consolidating the Global Commitment to Multi-Stakeholder Approaches to Counter-Terrorism through Member States' Leadership and Action”.
The conference opened with a keynote address by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who called for reinforced global solidarity and a renewed international focus on the causes of violent extremism. This call to action was further underscored by while Acting Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism Alexandre Zouev with emphasizing the essential role of regional organizations and multilateral organizations in implementing these strategies on the ground.
Aligning with the vision of the UN leadership, in his statement during the thematic working session “Strengthening Coordination and Coherence Through Networked Multilateralism”, CICA Deputy Secretary General Damirli highlighted the importance of multilateral efforts in combating the evolving threat of global terrorism. He outlined CICA’s active collaboration with a wide network of global partners aimed at expanding the reach across 28 Member States, highlighting successfully established cooperation frameworks with key international bodies.
Deputy Secretary General Damirli reaffirmed CICA’s steadfast commitment to partnering with the United Nations in counter-terrorism efforts and praised the expanding collaboration with the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), building upon the formal partnership established between the two organizations in April 2024. This cooperation is set to be further institutionalized through a proposed Memorandum of Understanding aimed at creating new avenues for joint operational projects and reinforcing the shared commitment.
He further underlined that practical cooperation among Member States is driven by the CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures, where “Combating Terrorism” serves as one of the priority areas within the "New Challenges and Threats" dimension.
Deputy Secretary General Damirli recalled that the initial commitment was forged at the First CICA Summit in 2002 with the adoption of the Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue among Civilizations, and later culminated in a milestone at the Sixth CICA Summit in Astana in 2022, when CICA Member States adopted the CICA Plan of Action on the Implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, a document he underscored as the most comprehensive regional framework of its kind in Asia.
This year’s conference served as the flagship event of the Fourth Counter-Terrorism Week, bringing together international leaders, regional organizations and civil society to strengthen multilateral cooperation and advance the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
The forum concluded with a forward-looking focus on the upcoming ninth review of the Strategy, emphasizing the critical need for inclusive, coordinated, and sustainable approaches to address the shifting global threat landscape.
