1. The inaugural meeting of the Republic of Korea-European Union special working group on counter-terrorism will take place at the ROK Foreign Ministry on January 31. The ROK and EU head delegates to the meeting will be the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for International Organizations Lee Jang-keun and Director for the Security Policy and Conflict Prevention Pawel Herczynsk of the European External Action Service, respectively.

° The first meeting of the special working group on counter-terrorism will come pursuant to the agreement reached at the 13th meeting of the ROK-EU Joint Committee in June 2016. The newly established consultative mechanism for counter-terrorism cooperation is expected to help further bolster the strategic partnership between the ROK and the EU.

※ At their fifth bilateral summit meeting in Brussels on October 6, 2010, the ROK and the EU agreed to forge strategic partnership.

2. In the forthcoming meeting, the ROK and the EU delegations will review the terrorist threats currently facing the international community as well as the state of preparedness for bilateral counter-terrorism coordination, with just days left until the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games kicks off in February.  

° In addition, the two sides will discuss issues concerning foreign terrorist fighters who have returned home, and ways to implement the UN Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism, prevent violent extremism and block terrorist financing as well as others that they can work together on counter-terrorism on the multilateral and bilateral levels.

3. Through the special working group on counter-terrorism, the ROK government plans to step up discussions on information and policies regarding counter-terrorism with Europe, which has an advanced counter-terrorism system in place, while seeking to build a network and share model practices with other relevant agencies.

* unofficial translation