BISHKEK, November 24. /TASS/. Officials from CIS member nations’ security agencies, intelligence departments and law enforcement agencies held talks in Bishkek on Thursday for the purpose of combating terrorism and extremism, and coordinating efforts on these tracks, Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee of National Security said.
"The regional expert consultations of security agencies were attended by delegations from the competent agencies of seven CIS states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan and four CIS agencies: The Council of the Commanders of the Border Troops, the Council of the Heads of Prison Services, the Council of the Heads of Financial Intelligence Units and the Anti-Terrorist Centre," the committee said in a statement.
The meeting’s participants agreed to continue joint work "in the priority areas of cooperation in the area of fighting terrorism and extremism."
It was decided to continue exchanging "relevant information," conduct "coordinated activities" to uncover and eliminate conduits of illegal migration, the smuggling of weapons, munitions and explosives and sites for making fraudulent identification documents. The parties agreed to counteract the activities of international terrorist organizations in the information space, including "propaganda, recruitment and fundraising", and to enhance cooperation in "implementing country-to-country searches for individuals wanted for committing terrorist crimes," the statement said.
"During the consultations, an interested exchange of views was held on the developments unfolding in the Central Asian region and on the current and potential threats caused by the activities of international terrorist organizations. The event’s participants pointed to the destabilizing effect on the security of the CIS countries emanating from a consistently high level of terrorist activity in Afghanistan. In this regard, there is a danger of hotbeds of terrorism expanding near the southern borders of the CIS and increasing radicalization of the population in neighboring countries," the committee noted.
The meeting participants also included the "cross-border movement of terrorist militants," the creation of a network of terrorist cells, the spread of terrorist ideology and recruitment "through the Internet" on the list of relevant threats to the CIS at this stage. The 12th consultations of representatives of special services in Bishkek were held by the CIS Anti-Terrorist Center together with Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee of National Security.