Norway's statement:
"An integrated and long-term approach to the fight against international terrorism must strike a balance between preventive and combative measures. If we fail to take a long-term perspective in our fight against terrorist groups today, we may face new, stronger terrorist groups with greater popular support tomorrow. We risk undermining our own goals. It can only be won by making use of a wide range of methods, including political, humanitarian, economic, legal and military means.
That is why we have the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, with its comprehensive approach. In the long-term, we must focus on the factors that make individuals choose the path of terrorism. Norway’s work on peace, democratization and development are therefore important contributions to the overall struggle against terrorism. Respect for democracy, human rights and international law must be a mainstay in all our efforts to combat terrorism.
The United Nations has a particular responsibility for coordinating global efforts against terrorism. It is important to strengthen the United Nations’ role in order to ensure that the international efforts are endorsed and followed up by all countries in the world. A strengthening of the UN’s role will help to ensure that the international community’s efforts are as closely coordinated and integrated as possible, both in the short and long term.
The adoption by consensus of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy four years ago was a milestone in our common endeavour to prevent terrorism. It is of course the responsibility of the member states to implement the strategy. The United Nations has not been tasked with a coordination of the member states implementation of the strategy, but we have the United Nations to assist the member states with their implementation if need be.
We have the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force to coordinate the different UN-agencies efforts to assist the member states. Norway supports the Task Force politically and financially. The Task Force has a unique opportunity to further a balanced approach with regard to the implementation of the strategy, with equal attention paid to all four pillars of the Strategy. It is in our view important that the Task Force has the necessary resources. We appreciate the ongoing institutionalisation of the Task Force Secretariat.
Norway cosponsored the International Workshop of National Counter-Terrorism Focal Points in Vienna in October last year in order to facilitate an interface between the Task Force and the Member States. We are also co-sponsoring the follow up conferences to come on a regional basis. We hope that these conferences will foster a deeper understanding of the comprehensive approach to counter-terrorism so that they will foster greater support for the Global Strategy.
Let me end with expressing our sincere gratitude to His Excellency Ambassador Abdul Momen of Bangladesh and Mr. Rafiuddin Shah of Pakistan for their able leadership and guidance that brought us to the successful conclusion of the negotiations on the resolution on the review of the Global Strategy against terrorism. Our thanks also go out to all delegations that participated in those negotiations."