Washington, DC - Special Representative for Religion and Global Affairs Shaun Casey will host a meeting of the TPNRD from June 20-22. Fifteen diplomats and representatives from Europe, the European Union and Canada will participate. Founded in 2015, TPNRD is a policy network that brings together officials from foreign ministries in the European and Atlantic regions whose portfolios focus on religion. Its biannual meetings address specific policy issues of concern to its membership and allow attendees to identify possible areas of future cooperation and consultation.

TPNRD’s secretariat is based at the Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies at Cambridge University in the UK.

TPNRD participants will meet with State Department officials, as well as academics and experts from foreign policy think tanks to discuss issues such as the interface of religion and countering violent extremism, opportunities for moving forward with the Marrakesh Declaration, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and the terminology of religious engagement. In addition, the group will meet with the U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein and Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South and Central Asia Knox Thames to discuss protection of religious minorities.