The Kingdom of Morocco was unanimously elected on Friday as Coordinator of the Implementation and Assessment Group (IAG) of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) for the period 2019-2021 by the 88 partner countries participating in the 11th GICNT plenary meeting, held on June 5-7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is the first time that an Arab and African country has assumed such a responsibility within the framework of the Global Initiative. The IAG, as the main political body of the GICNT, has the mandate to facilitate the implementation of the Declaration of Principles and the terms of reference of the Global Initiative, and to ensure operational synergy between the various technical working groups and the promotion of strategic priorities. Launched at the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg in 2006 by the presidents of the United States and Russia, the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism is a multilateral platform for collaboration among partner countries to strengthen operational and technical capabilities to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism. The 1st meeting of the official launch of this Initiative was held in Rabat in October 2006, by 13 founding countries, including Morocco, the United States of America and Russia, which had adopted the Declaration of Principles and the terms of reference of this Initiative. Co-chaired by the United States and Russia, the Initiative now has 88 partner States and 6 international organizations. On this occasion, it was announced that Morocco intends to organize in 2020 an important activity within the framework of the Initiative with an African regional scope, aimed at strengthening the capacities of African countries in the field of nuclear security. The Global Initiative's IAG mid-term meeting is scheduled to take place in Morocco in June 2020.
