Representatives of the CIS competent authorities and SCO discussed countering extremism and terrorism in Bishkek
On September 20, an international conference on combating terrorism and extremism was held in Bishkek as part of responsibilities related to Kyrgyzstan’s chairmanship in the CIS.
The event was organized by the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Kyrgyzstan and the Anti-Terrorism Center of the CIS Member States, as the press service of the SCNS reported.
The conference was attended by heads of competent authorities of eight CIS countries, namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as four SCO member states that are not CIS members (India, Iran, China and Pakistan) and Mongolia as an SCO observer state.
During the conference, participants exchanged experience in countering terrorism and extremism, discussed provision of scientific-based support to these activities and international counter-terrorism cooperation.
The participants also reviewed the trends of emerging terrorist threats in the CIS, expressed their concern about the situation in Afghanistan and a number of Middle Eastern states, which is creating hotbeds of tension along the borders of the Commonwealth, and expressed concern about the increasing risks of terrorist infiltration into the Central Asian states, including through migration channels and with the refugees; covered issues related to the militants, leakage of weapons and ammunition from conflicts zones. Participants also expressed concern about the abuse of modern information and technical achievements, such as artificial intelligence, unmanned systems and robotic systems, by terrorists.
The parties agreed on the need to expand the research activities of scientific organizations and develop effective methods and approaches for countering terrorism and extremism in the CIS, and spoke in favor of continuing the practice of exchanging scientific and methodological publications on relevant issues in the field of countering terrorism and extremism.
In addition, on the sidelines of the conference, a formal ceremony of exchanging the signed copies of the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in May this year in Moscow between the Anti-Terrorism Center (ATC) of the CIS and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the SCO was held.
The document reflects the cooperation experience and the established practice of holding joint activities in the legal, coordination, information and analytical, educational, methodological and scientific fields.
The memorandum follows the course to strengthen interaction between the entities and will give additional impetus to the development of relationships in the counter-terrorism sphere.
Based on the results of the Conference, the final document was adopted.