EAG Secretariat participated in the RATS SCO and CIS Conference on Combating Terrorism

The EAG Secretariat took part in the Tenth International Scientific and Practical Conference of the RATS SCO and the Second CIS Conference on Combating Terrorism, held on September 4-5, 2024 in Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan).

The event was co-organized by the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, CIS Anti-Terrorism Center and SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure.

The Conference including a plenary meeting and five thematic sessions will be attended by the delegations: competent authorities of 20 CIS member-states and SCO member-states, observer states at SCO and SCO dialogue partners; working structures of 9 CIS bodies; working structures of 2 CIS bodies; 10 authorized agencies of 6 international organizations, including Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism; 22 scientific-research and educational organizations.

While assessing the contemporary challenges and threats, the speakers noted that the situation in the area of countering terrorism remained highly tense amid the intensifying geopolitical struggle and the use of terrorist methods in it, relentless regional conflicts and noticeably worsened old contradictions. Terrorism remains one of the most dangerous problems of our society requiring a strong stand and coordinated efforts of the entire international community, they stressed.

During the Conference, participants:

- exchanged their assessment of the main threats to the collective and national security and gave forecast of their development, as well as the practices of countering terrorism and extremism;

- noted a steady trend of increasing radicalization of the population, especially young people, caused by the continuing activity of terrorist ideologists in the information space and the use of modern information and telecommunications technologies by international terrorist organizations;

- identified the need for further development of interstate measures aimed at countering the fusion of transnational crime and international terrorist organizations, intensifying international cooperation in the fight on drug trafficking, smuggling of weapons, ammunition and technical means used for terrorist purposes, and stressed the importance of coordinated actions to prevent the use of migration channels for the movement of persons involved in the terrorist and extremist activities;

- focused on the need to employ the capacity of inter-parliamentary structures to further improve the legal framework for multilateral cooperation in the field of countering terrorism and extremism, as well as the development of international rules of conduct in the information sphere;

- reviewed topical issues of international counter-terrorism cooperation, assessed the state and efficiency of response mechanisms to emerging modern challenges, confirmed a firm commitment to further strengthening professional cooperation, and emphasized the need to use joint capacities in developing comprehensive counter-terrorism measures with the leading role of the UN in coordinating efforts to combat terrorism;

- discussed measures to improve scientific and educational support for activities to combat terrorism and extremism, exchanged practices in organizing educational, methodological and research work, by noting among the promising areas of training the development and implementation of educational programs in the field of cyberterrorism, the creation of methodological centers in national educational organizations for the exchange of experience and best practices, and the study of the effectiveness of approaches to the rehabilitation and re- ocialization of individuals who participated in terrorist and extremist activities.

- discussed issues of countering financing of terrorism, including the implementation of joint programs and projects aimed at increasing the efficiency of monitoring financial flows and identifying suspicious transactions, the development of databases on the platforms of the CIS ATC and the SCO RATS on terrorist organizations and individuals involved in the financing of terrorism;

- exchanged experience in countering extremist ideas actively disseminated with use of information and communication technologies, including the use of artificial intelligence technologies to monitor and analyze extremist content on social networks and the Internet, and counteract radicalization in virtual space.

The EAG Secretariat made a presentation on “EAG Methodological Guidelines on organizing and conducting financial investigations in the field of combating terrorism financing”.