SCO, CIS and CSTO anti-terrorist structures will intensify cooperation in countering terrorism

On February 16 at the Secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Stanislav Zas, CSTO Secretary General, Yevgeny Sysoyev, CIS ATC Head, and Ruslan Mirzayev, SCO RATS Executive Committee Director, signed the Joint Position of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Anti-Terrorist Centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization on Combating Terrorism and Extremism. According to Stanislav Zas, CSTO Secretary General, “We discussed countering terrorism and extremism and issues of interaction and cooperation in addressing these challenges.” “We have a Memorandum on Interaction and Understanding signed between our organizations in 2018,” the CSTO Secretary General continued. “Within the framework of this Memorandum there is an expert group, so we have the necessary legal framework for cooperation. Interaction is also established, primarily information exchange and sharing experience. We understand that the level we have reached does not match our capabilities and the situation we are in. During the meeting, we signed a Joint Position of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, CIS ATC and the CSTO Secretariat on Combating Terrorism and Extremism. I will not comment on the document itself; I will only say that the signing demonstrates that we have common positions, common assessments of terrorist threats and common approaches to countering threats that are urgent for all of us. This is important, it is a prerequisite for building our interaction and cooperation.”