In April 2022, Egypt and the EU were selected for co-chairmanship of the GCTF to succeed Morocco and Canada for the years 2022-2025.

Egypt will be holding the chairmanship forum until March 2025 while the EU has been chairing the forum since September 2022 and its presidency will expire in September 2024.

Egypt’s chairmanship comes at a time where the international society is facing many challenges that exacerbate terrorism and this requires a strengthening of cooperation to combat it, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry said in his speech at the 21st coordinating committee of the GCTF.

There are still many dangers despite the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq, Shoukry said.

Egypt aims in its term to combat terrorism in the African continent by addressing its root causes and building national capacities to aid in this endeavour, the foreign minister asserted.

Furthermore, Egypt and the EU’s joint leadership will work to enhance the form’s effectiveness by developing a clear framework to confront extremism, Shoukry added. In addition, their leadership will support women’s participation in the forum and their role in combating terrorism, Shoukry continued.

Egypt itself overcame many terrorist threats in the past decade due to the sacrifices of its Egyptian Armed Forces and policemen, the foreign minister asserted.

Egypt’s comprehensive approach to combating terrorism extends to all economic, social, and cultural aspects of the phenomenon, Shoukry continued, adding that this includes combating extremist discourse.

The GCFT was originally formed in 2011 as a multilateral counter-terrorism platform aimed at developing an international system to confront terrorism in light of the UN's Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

The forum has 30 member states and Egypt was one of its founding members.

Egypt has with the EU co-chaired the capacity-building working group for East African countries – one of the forum’s working groups – since 2017.

Additionally, Egypt also co-chaired with the United States the Criminal Justice and Rule of Law working group in the years from 2011 to 2017.