On 13-14 April of this year within the framework of Uzbekistan’s chairmanship in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Tashkent will host the meeting of Secretaries of the Security Councils of the SCO member states. The event focuses on the fight against transnational threats, including terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and transboundary crime.
Uzbekistan supports a fundamental and uncompromising fight against these threats proclaimed as a priority of the SCO. An institute of Meetings of the Security Council Secretaries was initiated by our country, and the first one was held in Tashkent in 2004. The Meetings of the Heads of the SCO countries Security Councils are coordinating-consultative mechanism for security cooperation in the SCO framework.
It should be noted that these meetings are of a significant role in the study, analysis and evaluation of the situation in security field, the coordination of efforts of the SCO countries to stand together against the challenges and threats to security and stability, the deepening of the political dialogue. Negotiations within them contribute to the development of mutually acceptable approaches in timely response to traditional and new threats, and thereby increase the practical effectiveness of the Organization’s activities in the field of peace and sustainable development in the broad space of the SCO.
This work is carried out on the basis of the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism, the Concept of Cooperation of the SCO Member States in the fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism, the SCO Convention against terrorism, as well as the cooperation program of the SCO member states in the fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism for 2016-2018 years, and other documents.
Coordination of efforts of the SCO member states in the field of security is assuming ever greater importance in the background of the prevailing situation in the world today conditioned on the dangerous tendencies of globalization of radical ideologies, intensification of creeping expansion of religious extremism, amplification of international terrorism.
In this regard, the Republic of Uzbekistan gives priority to the progressive development of multilateral cooperation in the framework of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the SCO. This structure, functioning in Tashkent since 2004, has become an effective tool and a key platform for joint efforts and pragmatic cooperation between law enforcement bodies of the SCO countries to ensure stability in the region.
