Joint efforts needed to end terrorism

A member special French RAID forces secures the area of the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket January 12, 2015 near the Porte de Vincennes in Paris, where four hostages were killed in a terror attack on Friday. [Photo/Agencies]

The United States will host a meeting with all its allies on Feb 18 to discuss ways to fight "violent extremism around the world". This was announced by US Attorney General Eric Holder in Paris on Jan 11, four days after the attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people. Speaking after consulting European security ministers following the Paris attack, Holder said the meeting to be held in Washington would be presided over by US President Barack Obama.

The two major tasks of the Feb 18 meeting are likely to be strengthening transnational cooperation, especially intelligence exchange, to prevent terrorist attacks and consolidating the US' leadership in the global "war on terror".

Horrifying as they were, the Paris attack, and the killing of two Japanese hostages and burning alive of a Jordanian pilot by Islamic State militants, and the latest Copenhagen shootings have unified the global forces fighting terrorism. After the Charlie Hebdo attack, French President Francois Hollande and leaders from more than 40 countries, including Germany and Italy, joined hundreds of thousands of French people to march in the streets of Paris to pay homage to the victims, which was in stark contrast to many European governments' ambiguous stance on terrorism in different regions.

The killings of the hostages by the IS have infuriated Jordan and Japan, a country which seemed far removed from Islamic extremism. By establishing the first department that specializes in the fight against terrorism, Japan has exhibited its stronger-than-ever determination to take part in the global battle against terrorism. Jordan too is determined to eliminate the threat of the IS.

Another focus of the Washington meeting could be how Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would transform Japan's economic and technological advancements into advantages in the fight against terrorism.

In specific terms, cyber cooperation should be a priority for the countries, especially Western ones, taking part in the meeting. The possibility of joint efforts to remove online information that instigate and provoke terrorist attacks was already discussed at the meeting Holder had with European security ministers in Paris in January.