Wed, June 09, 2010
TASHKENT, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding security and stability in Eurasia, the organization's top anti-terrorism executive official said.
Jenisbek Jumanbekov, director of the executive committee of the Tashkent-based Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), one of the two permanent agencies of the SCO, made the comments during an interview with Xinhua ahead of the annual SCO summit to be held in the Uzbek capital between June 9 and 11.
The RATS' mandate is to coordinate and assist SCO member countries in combating the "three forces" of separatism, terrorism and extremism, the official said, adding that measures taken by the organization have enabled member states to conduct effective joint anti-terrorism operations.
Jumanbekov said the SCO has set up mechanisms to tackle new challenges and threats, and has strengthened coordination among member states and the regional security basis. In reinforcing these efforts, the RATS has played an important role, he added.
The official also said that the RATS attaches great importance to its cooperation with other international and regional anti-terror mechanisms and will actively advance such cooperation.
He said the RATS has already signed agreements and conducted concrete cooperation with the secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the CIS Anti-terrorism Center, and the secretariat of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The RATS plans to work more closely with SCO member states in arresting criminals linked to the "three forces," and will enhance cooperation with partners from SCO observer countries, said Jumanbekov.
Meanwhile, the RATS executive committee has forged close ties with the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee, and such cooperation will enable SCO member states to participate in the implementation of the UN's global anti-terrorism strategy, Jumanbekov said.
The committee will also work closely with the Central Asian branch of the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes to crack down on drug trafficking and thus cut off financing channels for terrorists in the region, the official added.
According to a joint declaration on cooperation issued in April, the SCO and the UN agreed to coordinate their efforts in such areas as conflict prevention and resolution, counter-terrorism, nonproliferation and the fight against transnational crimes, said Jumanbekov.
The official said staff members of the RATS come from SCO member states and all of them are well-trained anti-terrorism experts. Inspired by "the Shanghai Spirit", they work and fight side by side as a big family, he added.
