The United States and Turkey launched on Thursday a new counterterrorism conference in a fresh push to build efforts to fight terrorism in countries that shed dictatorship in the wake of the Arab Spring. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan made the launch at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in mid-town Manhattan, attended by government leaders who came to New York for the UN General Assembly session.
The European Union and other countries joined the forum, including Algeria, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The US said the forum will work closely with countries emerging from years or decades of authoritarian rules, with the inhabitants seeking democracy and fundamental freedoms that were denied them. The forum will seek to assist those countries fight terrorism within their borders.