The Chargé d’affaires of the European Union Mission, Gediminas Varanavicius, said both Kuwait and the European Union face common global challenges, including security, and revealed a program to combat financing of terrorism and money laundering, which best suits Kuwait’s needs.
The European Union embassy held a specialized workshop in cooperation and partnership with the Ministry of Information, in which it focused on strategies to combat extremism-based discourse in social media and traditional media, in the presence of the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Development and International Cooperation, Ambassador Hamad Al-Mashaan, and the head of the Anti-Extremism Team, Assistant Undersecretary for the Media Affairs Sector. Foreign Minister Mazen Al-Ansari, and a number of Arab and foreign ambassadors and diplomats accredited to the country, reports Al-Rai daily.
In his speech during the opening of the three-day workshop at the National Library, Varanavicius said that the workshop, which relies on the strong and excellent relations between the European Union and Kuwait, which remains a reliable partner and ally of the European Union, comes within the framework of the new European Union strategy towards the Gulf, including Kuwait, which was adopted last year, aims to strengthen European cooperation with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries in the global agenda, such as security and combating terrorism, expressing the Union’s conviction that exchanging experiences and knowledge with the Gulf region and Kuwait in particular, is important to overcome these challenges together.
Varanavicius explained that the EU’s partnership with Kuwait in the field of security and combating terrorism is based on three pillars:
— Combating the financing of terrorism and money laundering
— Judicial cooperation between the European Union and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, an area in which Kuwait plays a pioneering and vital role.
— Combating extremism, as evidenced by the workshop in partnership with the Ministry of Information.
He stated that the workshop is the first of its kind in the Gulf, stressing the importance of international cooperation in this particular issue, as it is an excellent example of such cooperation. The presence of many EU ambassadors here today is a testament to that.
Experts from the European Union participating in the workshop include the European Union’s Regional Adviser for the Gulf States and Counter-Terrorism, Philip Cormier; team Leader of the Enhanced Political Dialogue Project between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Mary Jo Char; Strategic communication expert, member of the European Union’s Radicalization Awareness Network, Giulia Dino Giacomelli; Hugo MacPherson, strategic communications consultant and expert in countering extremism and radicalism, Elliot Grainger.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
