November 8, 2023
The CIS Anti-Terrorism Center’s delegation led by its Head Colonel General E.S. Sysoev took part in the Ninth Scientific and Practical Conference of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization “Trust, Cooperation and Professionalism as the Key to a Safe Future” held in Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan) on November 7-8, 2023.
During the conference, participants assessed the security situation, exchanged views on the development of terrorist and extremist threats in the SCO area and discussed the state and prospects for the development of anti-terrorism cooperation.
In his opening remarks Director of the SCO RATS Executive Committee R.E. Mirzaev noted that RATS represented a successful example of multilateral cooperation in countering the “three forces of evil” - terrorism, extremism and separatism, highlighting the results and coherence of the work of the competent authorities of the SCO countries this year.
In his statement at the plenary meeting the CIS ATC Head noted a significant deterioration of the situation in the world and the emergence of new zones of tension, entailing changes in the international security system. As an example, he cited the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has entered a “hot” phase and runs a risk of acquiring a global scale.
E.S. Sysoev informed about the on-going activities of the international terrorist organizations in the Middle East region, Africa and Afghanistan, where, according to the UN, the size of the so-called Khorsan province of ISIS has increased to 6 thousand fighters.
He drew the participants' attention to the increased risks of weapons leakage from the zones of armed conflict, movement of foreign terrorist-fighters in refugee flows, noted the desire of terrorist organizations to use the advantages of science and technology in their criminal activities, as well as their attempts to gain access to radioactive, chemical and biological weapons which causes serious concern of the intelligence services.
Under these circumstances the competent authorities of the Commonwealth countries in cooperation with their partners, undertake comprehensive measures to ensure proper control over the situation in the CIS area.
Moreover, the CIS ATC Head acted as a moderator of session 2 dedicated to international counter-terrorism cooperation, which heard statements of the representatives of government bodies, scientific and educational organizations of the CIS and SCO countries, relevant UN bodies, including the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team on Al-Qaeda and ISIS, INTERPOL Counter-Terrorism Directorate, and CICA.
The forum was attended by more than 160 participants from 17 countries, including representatives of the competent authorities of member-states, observer-states and dialogue partners of the SCO, executive bodies of 8 international organizations and more than 10 international research centers, educational institutions of the competent authorities of the SCO countries.
