The sixth meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's
regional anti-terror agency council was held Wednesday in the Uzbek
capital Tashkent, with fifteen anti-terror related documents being
adopted.
According to reports from Tashkent, participants at the one-day
meeting agreed that the SCO anti-terror agency has increasingly
become an efficient mechanism in maintaining regional
security.
Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Meng Hongwei, who held the
rotating council chairmanship, lauded the increasingly important
role of the anti-terror agency in maintaining peace and stability
of SCO members and throughout central Asia.
"We are satisfied with the direction of the agency's development
and confident that the work to boost security among the SCO members
will be a success," Meng told the meeting.
Meng also called for further strengthening of cooperation among
law enforcement departments of member countries within the SCO
framework, as well as for joint efforts to crack down on terrorism,
separatism and extremism.
Participants adopted the 2005 work report of the SCO regional
anti-terror agency.
They also signed 15 documents, including the document guiding
SCO members' cooperation between 2007 and 2009 in the fight against
terrorism, separatism and extremism.
The SCO, established in 2001 in the Chinese city of Shanghai,
groups Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan. Its regional anti-terror agency came into operation in
Tashkent in June 2004.
(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2006)