12th meeting of the Heads of the CIS National Anti-Terrorism Centers took place in Moscow

On 19-20 February, the 12^th Meeting of the heads of the CIS National Anti-Terrorism Centers took place in Moscow under the aegis of the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center.

The meeting brought together delegations of security agencies and special services of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrghyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of the statutory bodies and bodies of sectorial cooperation of the Commonwealth. Representatives of international organizations, the SCO and the CSTO secretariat, also attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed the interaction between the CIS competent authorities in the field of combating terrorism and extremism. In particular, participants discussed situation in the Syria-Iraq and the Afghan-Pakistan zones, assessed the degree of its influence on the CIS situation and noted the factors of special risks. They included frontier clashes at borders, the formation of “sleeping” cells with mercenaries and radicalized citizens, enhancing the role of information and communication technologies in the spread of destructive information, etc.

Heads of the CIS National Anti-Terrorism Centers called on the CIS competent authorities to continue measures to control foreign terrorist fighters, organize cooperation to ensure the counter-terrorism protection of critical sites, establish counter-propaganda activities in the field of combating terrorism and extremism and train personnel to implement these and other safety measures.

Preparations for joint anti-terrorism training for CIS security agencies and special services “Ararat-Antiterror’19” to be held in September 2019 was also discussed.