ALMATY, June 23. /TASS/. Meetings between senior security officials in the Russia-Central Asia format will be held regularly, the Russian Security Council said on Friday.

The first consultations between secretaries of the Security Councils from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were held in Astana on Friday. Talks in this format between foreign ministers have been held since 2019. The first Russia-Central Asia summit was held last year.

"The first meeting between Security Council secretaries in the Central Asia-Russia format was held in Almaty. It was attended by Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev," the Russian Security Council said. "Bearing in mind the importance of the issues addressed during the consultations, it was suggested that meetings in this format be held on a regular basis."

Patrushev and his Central Asian counterparts discussed issues of regional security. The sides reiterated that they are interested in closer cooperation in the economic and humanitarian areas, as well as in the fields of defense and security. They stressed the importance of cooperation between the countries’ Security Councils, law enforcement and special services.

"Special attention was focused on anti-terrorism cooperation, jointly combating trans-national crime and illegal drug trafficking, counteracting security threats originating from Afghanistan and the West’s attempts to destroy <…> the Collective Security Treaty Organization, CIS, and Eurasian Economic Union, as well as on further coordination of actions on matters of biosecurity," it added.