The United States has become a member of the International Religious Freedom Alliance, a group that is fighting to reduce religious persecution across the world, Religious News Service has reported.
U.S. membership of IRFA brings the number of countries in the group to 27.
The other members of the alliance are Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Gambia and Georgia.
Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Togo, Ukraine and the United Kingdom are also members.
“Together, we say that freedom of religion or belief is not a Western ideal, but truly the bedrock of societies,” Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said at a dinner at the U.S. State Department.
The alliance would involve senior representatives of each government.
Religious Service reported that the first meeting of IRFA fell on the eve of the National Prayer Breakfast, which attracts international religious and diplomatic personalities once in a year.
In a joint statement with the State Department, a member of the alliance, Poland, said the next ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom would hold between July 14 and 16 in Warsaw.
The statement said, “Building on the success of the 2018 and 2019 ministerials hosted by the United States, the 2020 ministerial will allow countries to share different approaches, debate varying perspectives in the spirit of coherence and complementarity, and address challenges threatening the freedom of religion or belief.”
The statement further said participants at the meeting would address “promoting inclusive dialogue to mobilize action and increase awareness regarding the scale of persecution against religion or belief worldwide.”