Kazakhstan takes part in RATS SCO Conference on Combating Terrorism

None
None
ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, Ambassador Kairat Umarov, visited Tashkent on 1-2 November 2017, in his capacity as Chair of UN Security Council Committees 1988 on the Taliban movement and 1267 ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaeda, to participate in the Fifth Scientific and Practical Conference of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (RATS SCO) on the theme of «Combating Terrorism: Cooperation without Borders», Kazinform has learnt from the Kazakh MFA's press service.

Addressing the conference, Ambassador Umarov spoke of UN assessments regarding the threats emanating from these terrorist groups, noting the escalation of their activities in northern Afghanistan. He underscored the need for Member States to use the mechanisms of the sanctions regime against these terrorist structures as part of their national anti-terrorism strategies.

Ambassador Umarov also called upon UN Members to cooperate more closely with the Security Council Sanctions Committees to expand the international community's capacity to counter changing challenges and threats to global terrorism, and to suppress the activities of terrorists and their networks.

The Conference discussed topical issues of countering modern challenges and threats emanating from international terrorist organizations, and participants noted the instability and complexity of forecasting the current situation. It was pointed out that as a result of the successes of antiterrorist forces in the Middle East and the expulsion of terrorists from the region, they are redeploying to other parts of the world, including Afghanistan, which was creating additional threats near the borders of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The Conference also addressed how to counteract the use of the Internet for terrorist and extremist purposes, and coordinating actions in the fight against the financing of terrorism. In this regard, the participants agreed upon the need for closer cooperation in the following areas: the timely exchange of information, the search for terrorists, the strengthening of border controls, the training of personnel for anti-terrorist units, the mutual integration of information databases on combating terrorism, the conduct of antiterrorist exercises, and improvement of the legal basis for antiterrorist cooperation.

It was also stressed that counteraction to terrorism and extremism, as well as international counter-terrorism cooperation, should be carried out with the UN in a coordinating role, with strict observance of the UN Charter and norms of international law.

The representatives of the competent bodies of SCO member states and observers, as well as the Secretariat of the SCO attended the Conference. The UN entities present, such as the UN Office of Counter Terrorism, Executive Directorate of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, the UN Security Council Sanctions Committees 1267 and 1988; the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia also made important contributions to the event.
Regional structures participated actively; and among key participants there were the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism. Other key organizations that added to deliberations were the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for combating the illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia; the Collective Security Treaty Organization; the Commonwealth of Independent States' Anti-Terrorism Center and the Coordination Service of the Council of Commanders of the Border Troops of the CIS.

 

 

Currently reading