In accordance with the Decision of the SCO RATS Council of September 8, 2023, the competent authorities of the SCO member states prepared and conducted joint anti-terrorism exercise “Interaction-Antiterror - 2024” in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

The international and regional security situation is complicated by the presence of areas of high terrorist activity that pose a threat to the SCO member states. Major terrorist attacks lead to numerous casualties among civilians and pose a serious threat to security in the SCO space.

In these conditions, the purpose of the exercise is to prepare special counter-terrorism units for joint actions, including using information and communication technologies, to be taken by the competent authorities of the SCO member states in case of a terrorist attack or its threat in their countries.

Given the clear tendency for the forces of the “three evils” to be active on the Internet in a destructive way, joint activities were carried out to combat cyber terrorism and a joint anti-terrorism event to suppress the activities of a terrorist group and eliminate terrorist threats as part of the exercise.

This training event conducted with the assistance of the SCO RATS Executive Committee contributed to strengthening coordination and cooperation between the competent authorities of the SCO member states, allowed exchanging practical experience in conducting anti-terrorist measures and developing a mechanism for jointly responding to security threats and challenges.

For many years, the competent authorities of the SCO member states have been cooperating fruitfully in the field of combating terrorism.

The successful implementation of these exercises was not just a test of the quality of interaction between the competent authorities of the SCO member states that has been developed over the years of cooperation. It also allowed building the technical and tactical capacity of the counter-terrorist forces, as well as conduct useful research in the field of organizing joint events in order to ensure security and stability in the region.