Joint efforts needed to end terrorism

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.