Brussels : The European Union (EU) has called for a broad counter terrorism alliance that would also include Islamic nations, a media report said Monday.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said ahead of a ministerial summit here that there was need for greater cooperation with the Islamic countries as well as within the EU, BBC reported.
Mogherini said: “The threat is not only the one we faced in Paris, but is also spreading in many other parts of the world, starting from (the) Muslim countries.”
“We need to strengthen our way of cooperating, first of all with Arab countries and then internally. We need to share information more, we need to cooperate more,” she noted.
Arab League Secretary General, Nabil al-Arabi would be attending the talks with the EU foreign ministers.
Mogherini added: “We will discuss with the secretary general how to increase the level of cooperation… we need an alliance, a dialogue.”
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond echoed her call, saying: “The Muslim countries of the world are the ones who have suffered the greatest burden of terrorism and they will continue to be in the frontline.a¿
He said that there was need to work closely with the Islamic countries to protect those countries and the EU countries alike.
High on the agenda of the talks will be concerns surrounding the return of radicalised Europeans who had gone to fight in Iraq and Syria.
“We are determined to do what is necessary to keep Europe safe from the terrorist threat,” Hammond said.
The summit will come after terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 20 people, including three gunmen.
Two of the Paris gunmen had cited caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the media, as a reason for the attacks and claimed to have avenged the prophet.
The Charlie Hebdo magazine, whose office was among the main targets of the Paris attackers, had courted controversy by its portrayal of Prophet Muhammad.
The first issue of the magazine published after the attacks carried another cartoon of the prophet on its cover, which sparked angry protests in the Muslim world.
The Brussels talks also come after anti-terror raids in Belgium, France and Germany, that led to more than 20 people being arrested.
Belgium launched a series of raids last Thursday on a group of suspected jihadis and two suspects were killed in a gun battle in the town of Verviers.