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SCO session to focus on fight against terrorism, drugs, other threats

DUSHANBE, April 17, /ITAR-TASS/. The situation in the region, cooperation on fight against terrorism, extremism, separatism and drug trafficking as well as other challenges will be in the focus of attention of security council secretaries from the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), that opens in Dushanbe on Thursday.

“The exact agenda will be formulated and approved at the opening” of the session, said a source from the Foreign Ministry of Tajikistan, which currently holds the SCO presidency.

“The situation in the zone of SCO responsibility and adjacent regions, stronger coordination and cooperation in fight against terrorism, extremism, separatism, illegal drug trafficking and trans-national crimes will certainly be the key issues,” the source told Tass on Wednesday.

“Certain success has been reached in this, but a lot of unresolved problems persist,” he said. The meeting will also discuss the situation in Afghanistan after 2014, when U.S. troops will withdraw from the country. According to the Tajik side, the International Security Assistance Force has failed to cope “with the task to establish peace in that country”.

The source said “there is no solution by force to the Afghan problem”. “A set of measures to offer economic assistance to Afghanistan is needed, and the SCO member countries intend to once again draw close attention of the world community to that issue,” the source said. Economic issues would also be on the agenda, he added.

Taking part in the meeting are SCO Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev, delegations from Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Russian delegation is led by the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev.

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