Joint anti-terrorism exercise of the competent authorities of the SCO member states "Eurasia-Antiterror - 2023" took place

The State Committee for National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic, with the support of the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO RATS) and the Anti-Terrorism Center of the CIS Member States, held the final stage (“power phase”) of the joint anti-terrorism exercises of the competent authorities of the SCO member states and CIS member states named “Eurasia – Antiterror-2023” on September 21, 2023, in Bishkek.

For the first time, the exercises were carried out within the framework of interaction between two international organizations envisaging simultaneous execution of individual learning tasks, united by the situation, place and time.

The objectives of the exercise included:

- Improving performance of the competent authorities of the SCO member states and CIS member states when carrying out coordinated operational and investigative measures to uncover and prevent terrorist acts at critical infrastructure facilities and in places of mass gatherings of people;

- Exchanging success stories of conducting operational and combat activities to free hostages and eliminate terrorists at critical infrastructure facilities and in places of mass gatherings of people;

- Building an effective model of interaction between the Executive Committee of the SCO RATS and the CIS ATC for the future, and testing information exchange mechanisms to assist the competent authorities in carrying out coordinated measures to uncover and prevent impending terrorist attacks in practice.

Eleven competent authorities of the SCO member states and CIS member states took part in the parallel exercises. The first stages of the exercises took place from July 1 to August 1 (SCO member states) and from September 12 to 14, 2023 (CIS member states), so that the drills were practiced in the country to identify and detain mock terrorist groups planning to commit terrorist acts in objects of critical infrastructure and in places of mass gatherings of people, using collective information systems. The task of ensuring information exchange on the mock terrorists between the SCO RATS Executive Committee and the Coordination Headquarters of the CIS ATC has been successfully carried out.

As part of the second stage of the “Eurasia – Antiterror-2023” exercise, units of the State Committee for National Security, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Penitentiary Service under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic carried out an anti-terrorist operation to free hostages and eliminate terrorists at three facilities, namely a gas station of a thermal power plant, transport vehicles and correctional colony in Bishkek.

The National Operational Headquarters demonstrated their work on planning and managing the anti-terrorist operation. The units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic took measures to eliminate and mitigate the consequences of the terrorist attack. The maneuvers demonstrated the effective actions of the forces and means of the competent authorities of Kyrgyzstan and the excellent coordination of the actions of the agencies and ministries involved in resolving the crisis situation.

Recapping the outcomes of the exercises, the heads of delegations noted that this event was an important step aimed at integrating efforts and strengthening the anti-terrorist capacity of the SCO and the CIS.