Theresa gets support from G7 on fight against terrorism

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a news conference in the Sicilian town of Taormina, Italy. Picture: Luca Bruno/AP

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a news conference in the Sicilian town of Taormina, Italy. Picture: Luca Bruno/AP

Published May 26, 2017

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Taormina, Italy – British Prime Minister Theresa May won support from the world's major industrialised nations on Friday for measures to tackle terrorism such as pushing technology companies on internet controls and for the better tracking of militants.

At her first G7 meeting since becoming prime minister, May was keen to avoid Britain's soon-to-be-launched talks to leave the European Union and focused instead on the fight against terrorism, days after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester, the worst attack on Britain since 2005.

May, who on Thursday raised concerns over intelligence leaks in the United States, met President Donald Trump between sessions at the G7, which host Italy hoped would concentrate minds on Europe's migrant crisis.

A spokesperson for May said she and Trump reaffirmed their commitment to a post-Brexit trade deal, and agreed that the G7 should do more to tackle terrorism, a view shared by other leaders at the summit in Italy.

French President Emmanuel Macron was the first leader to offer to help May marshal support, drawing on his own country's experience of several jihadist attacks that have killed more than 230 people since 2015.

"We know this kind of attack," the newly elected president of France told May at the San Domenico Palace Hotel, a former monastery in Taormina, Sicily.

"We will ... do everything we can in order to increase this cooperation at the European level, in order to do more from a bilateral point of view against terrorism. We will do that during the whole day, because that's the common challenge."

May also told one session at the G7 that countries should work with Britain on a series of steps to allow foreign fighters to be detained and brought to justice close to the countries where they had been operating.

The Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old British-born man with Libyan parents, is suspected by the police and security services to have been working with a network of people who were inspired by extreme Islamist ideology.

They are also investigating his movements, aware that he had visited Libya, where some of his family live.

"It is vital we do more to cooperate with our partners in the region to step up returns and prosecutions of foreign fighters," May said, according to a senior government official.

"This means improving intelligence-sharing, evidence- gathering and bolstering countries' police and legal processes."

But in the background, Britain's vote to leave the European Union lingered. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he had described it in a meeting on Thursday with Trump as "a real tragedy".

Brexit has raised fears about future security cooperation with the bloc, with both sides drawing up the battle lines for at least two years of talks that could quickly sour.

A French source said France and Britain had agreed to maintain close economic, security and diplomatic ties, despite Brexit.

May again underlined the need for cooperation, telling the leaders of the United States, Japan, France, Italy, Germany and Canada that technology companies should be encouraged to develop better tools that can automatically identify and remove harmful material and block users who post extremist content.

May, herself a former interior minister, reiterated that companies should "tell the authorities when they identify harmful material so action can be taken".

"Make no mistake: the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet," she said.

"In the UK we are already working with social media companies to halt the spread of extremist material and hateful propaganda that is warping young minds. But I am clear that corporations can do more."

Reuters

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