November 24, 2022
The Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center in cooperation with the State Committee of National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic held the XII Regional Expert Consultations of the Representatives of Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Extremism Units of Security Agencies, Special Services and Law Enforcement Authorities of the CIS Member-States on November 24, 2022 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
The event was attended by the delegates of the competent authorities of seven Commonwealth states, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan) and four CIS bodies (Council of Border Troops Commanders, Council of Heads of Penitentiary Services, Council of Heads of Financial Intelligence Units, Anti-Terrorism Center).
The consultations offered an exchange of opinions on the situation development in the territory of the Central-Asian region, existing and emerging threats developed under the influence of international terrorist organizations.
The meeting participants noted that a consistently high threat of terrorist activity in Afghanistan has a destabilizing effect on the CIS security. In this regard a threat of expanding terrorist hotbeds along the southern borders of the Commonwealth remains high and population radicalization in the neighboring countries keeps growing.
The topical for the Commonwealth states security threats include trans-border relocation of terrorist fighters, creation of terrorist (including sleeper) cells, proliferation of terrorist ideas and terrorist recruitment with use of Internet.
The participants reiterated the importance and necessity of continued work on priority lines of cooperation in countering terrorism and extremism, including:
exchange of up-to-date information;
conduct of joint coordinated operations aimed to identify and suppress channels of illegal migration, trafficking in arms, ammunitions and explosives, as well as places of forged documents’ production;
countering terrorist organization in the information space, including propaganda, recruitment and fund-raising;
improvement of cooperation during inter-state search of wanted fugitives fleeing from prosecution for terrorist offences.
The proposals elaborated during the XII Regional Expert Consultations were reflected in the Outcome document.
