At the outset, I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for the month of August. We are confident that under your and your team’s guidance the Council will be very effective in its work during the month. China will fully cooperate with the presidency. I thank members of the Council for their expressions of appreciation to China during our presidency of the Council last month. We thank members of the Council for their cooperation.

I welcome the new Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation, Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, to the United Nations.

China appreciates the Egyptian initiative in convening this meeting, and thanks the briefers: Executive Directors Fedotov and Khan, Acting Executive Director of Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate Chen Weixiong, and INTERPOL Special Representative Roux.

China welcomes the unanimous adoption of Security Council resolution 2370 (2017), and we thank Egypt for the important efforts it has made in that connection. We hope that the resolution will further facilitate the strengthening of cooperation and taking comprehensive measures within the international community aimed at cutting off the channels that enable terrorist organizations to acquire weapons, thereby safeguarding regional and international peace and security:

First, the international community must use uniform standards in combating terrorism so as to plug loopholes that may make weapons available to terrorist organizations. The various Security Council resolutions clearly stipulate that all States shall refrain from providing any form of support, including weapons, to entities and persons involved in terrorist acts. All States should fully and strictly implement the relevant Council resolutions, giving particular effect to the provisions on the arms embargo and the monitoring mechanism. Only through Council-defined uniform standards and comprehensive and effective measures can we cut off the pathways through which terrorist organizations acquire weapons. We must plug all loopholes that allow the transfer of weapons between terrorist organizations or give them opportunities to undertake terrorist acts.

Secondly, Member States should play their appropriate role by assuming their primary responsibility to prevent terrorist organizations from acquiring weapons. All countries must, within their jurisdiction, exercise enhanced control and supervision over weapons production, storage and transportation, and their transfer. Countries must crackdown any illicit arms trade, trafficking and smuggling, which supply weapons to terrorist organizations. Countries should also continuously improve their legislation, regulations and administrative processes so as to establish an institutional framework that is guaranteed to prevent terrorist organizations from acquiring weapons from arms-trafficking criminal networks.

Thirdly, Member States should step up international and regional counter-terrorist cooperation forming synergies and interconnectivities aimed at preventing terrorist organizations from acquiring weapons. Countries should enhance the sharing and exchange of information pertaining to the ways and means by which terrorist organizations buy weapons. We must draw on one another’s good practices and experience in combating illegal trafficking and the transfer and production of weapons and improvised explosive devices. The United Nations counter-terrorism entities should focus on the new trends and characteristics identified in counter-terrorism efforts, and fully play their role as coordinator in multilateral counter-terrorism efforts. Moreover, at the request of Member States, those entities should provide technical support in order to build up their capacity in that regard. It is imperative to step up efforts and cooperation in blocking the use of the Internet and social media by terrorists in acquiring weapons and funds.

China participates actively in many multilateral mechanisms, including the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum. The 17th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO was recently held in Kazakhstan. At that summit, the SCO Anti-extremist Convention was signed. China called for enhancing the regional counter-terrorism mechanism and offered once again to host the SCO online counter-terrorism exercise.

That shows that China and other relevant countries are making efforts to enhance regional counter-terrorism initiatives. China looks forward to the translation of the outcome of this meeting today into new progress of strengthening international counter-terrorism cooperation.