The foreign ministers or foreign ministry representatives of about 60 countries are to meet Wednesday in Washington to discuss strategy in the fight against the terrorist group Islamic State.
The State Department said the diplomats would “review the campaign to date and strategize how to further accelerate the defeat of ISIS,” using an alternative name for Islamic State.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will host the meeting, set to include a detailed discussion of the coalition’s military efforts as well as its actions on foreign terrorist fighters, counterterrorist financing, counter-messaging and stabilization of liberated areas.
Representatives of the other 27 NATO member countries will attend the meeting, and Tillerson expects to meet with all or nearly all of them, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
Tillerson also is expected to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the coalition meeting.
In addition to military options, the diplomats are to discuss new suggestions on how Islamic State can be confronted politically, a spokeswoman for Tillerson said.
The ministers will look for ways to curtail the recruiting of Islamic State fighters over the internet, to better inform the populations in countries where there is civil war, such as Syria, and to interrupt the flow of money to the terrorist network.
Representatives of the 68-member coalition to defeat Islamic State regularly meet to coordinate and enhance their combined efforts, the State Department said.
Coalition foreign ministers last met in July 2016. Senior diplomatic officials met in Berlin four months later.
(dpa/NAN)
