Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, High Representative of the Alliance of Civilizations, Excellencies, Distinguished guests –

On behalf of the United Arab Emirates let me express our thanks to the President of the General Assembly and High Representative Al-Nasser for convening this meeting on an issue of global importance. Secretary-General, thank you for your statement today, we fully support the work of the United Nations and its entities, including the Alliance of Civilizations, in their efforts at building a more peaceful and inclusive world, based on the principle of mutual respect.

The challenge to global peace and security presented by extremism continues to be among the most pressing issues before the international community today. The violence perpetrated by terrorists and extremists in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen are vicious criminal acts. The fabric of society in these countries is being destroyed, the development gains of the past decade have been lost, and millions of children have been denied the opportunity to learn and grow in peaceful and stable environments.

The UAE is fully committed to deter and confront all acts of terrorism, to eradicate its roots and to deny the extremists the opportunity of recruiting and radicalizing young people through their poisonous mix of propaganda and technology. We work at every level possible – through schools, religious leaders and communities – and with a full array of partners nationally, regionally and internationally including through multilateral institutions – to systematically intervene, confront, challenge and defeat the extremists. This is because there are no second chances. This is an existentialist threat for us and our region. Our very survival depends on identifying and implementing effective measures to stop the radicalization, recruitment and flow of individuals to Da’esh and other groups.

The UAE model is based on the guiding principles of tolerance, pluralism and innovation, and we believe that these could serve as guiding principles for fostering peaceful inclusive societies and countering violent extremism in line with today’s important debate.

It is vital that we continue to learn from one another; to establish and share good practice; to promote innovation; scale up our efforts and to encourage evidence-based solutions. 

The challenge for all of us here today is to work together to enhance our collective response and to increase the effectiveness of our global efforts and more quickly and directly reduces the threat of terrorism and extremism.

Thank you.