EAG Secretariat participates in the First CIS Conference on Combating Terrorism and Extremism

An International Conference on Countering Terrorism and Extremism was held under the auspices of the Kyrgyz Republic presidency in the Commonwealth of Independent States in Bishkek on September 20, 2023. The event was co-organized by the State Committee of National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic and CIS Anti-Terrorism Center.

The Conference was attended by the heads of competent authorities of 8 CIS member-states (Azerbaijan Republic, Republic of Armenia, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Uzbekistan); competent authorities of 4 SCO member-states which are not part of the CIS (Republic of India, Islamic Republic of Iran, People's Republic of China, Islamic Republic of Pakistan) and SCO observer states (Mongolia); working structures of 10 constituent and branch cooperation bodies of the CIS; executives bodies of 8 international organizations; and 3 scientific research and educational institutions.

During the Conference the participants:

• exchanged national best practices in countering terrorism and extremism, discussed the state of scientific support to the mentioned efforts and international counter-terrorism cooperation;
• reviewed trends of formulation and development of the terrorist threats in the CIS area, noted their solicitousness for the situation in Afghanistan and some Middle East states which creates hotbeds of tension in close vicinity of the Commonwealth borders, expressed concern over rising risks of penetration of terrorist-fighters into the territory of the Central Asian states, including through migration channels and streams of refugees, leakage of weapons and ammunitions from the armed conflict zones, as well as terrorist use of advanced information and technical advantages, including artificial intelligence technologies, unmanned and robotic systems;
• reiterated firm stance on further development and strengthening of multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation having noted a core role of the United Nations in coordination of the international efforts to counter terrorism and extremism, draw attention to the necessary systematic implementation of practical events envisaged by the UN and CIS anti-terrorist programs, use of wider capacity of the regional structures, including CIS, SCO, EAG, CSTO, CICA, CARICC in the fight on terrorism and extremism.

Taking into consideration the held discussion, the Conference participants noted the importance of continuing work aimed at harmonizing the legislation of the CIS member states in the field of combating terrorism, increasing the level of cooperation between the competent authorities and international organizations, including in the field of information exchange.

During the meeting the report of the EAG Secretariat on combating the financing of terrorism in the Eurasian region, including the use of modern technologies, was presented to the participants.

EAG Secretariat