Assistant Secretary-General Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), participated in the 1st Summit of Speakers and Presidents of Parliament of Members and Partners of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) and the 20th Plenary Session, held in Budva, Montenegro, from 7 to 8 May 2026. The high-level meetings, hosted by the Parliament of Montenegro, brought together over 350 delegates, including PAM Members, Observers and Partner Parliaments, to discuss regional and international peace and security challenges and multilateral cooperation.
In her keynote address, during the 1st Summit of Speakers and Presidents of Parliament of PAM Members and Partners, ASG Gherman highlighted CTED’s longstanding partnership with PAM and emphasized the central role of parliamentarians in promoting cooperative governance, translating policy into action and supporting the legal foundations necessary for sustained and effective counter-terrorism efforts. She noted CTED’s role in monitoring implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions on counter terrorism, identifying emerging terrorism trends and promoting international standards and effective practices. In this context, she also referred to CTED’s engagement with member and associate States of PAM, including recent assessment visits conducted to Jordan (2023), Mauritania (2024), Montenegro (2024), Malta (2025) and Italy (2026).
Subsequently, during the session of PAM’s First Standing Committee on Political and Security-Related Cooperation, held as part of the 20th Plenary Session, ASG Gherman focused on current trends in the global terrorism landscape and the importance of strengthened regional and international cooperation. She highlighted concerns related to the increasing use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes, including artificial intelligence-driven tools to generate, target and spread terrorist propaganda to recruit new members; the exploitation of children and youth; evolving terrorist financing methods; and the nexus between terrorism and organized crime.
The Plenary session marked PAM’s twentieth anniversary, during which PAM members adopted several resolutions addressing political and security-related issues, including a resolution on counter-terrorism. Discussions emphasized the growing complexity of political and security challenges across the Euro-Mediterranean and Gulf regions, including evolving terrorist and hybrid threats as well as regional conflicts. Participants underscored the importance of multilateral cooperation, parliamentary diplomacy and coordinated international action to address these challenges in line with international law and human rights standards.