CSTO and UN: countering terrorism is only possible together

  The skillful actions of the Syrian army, which, with the support of the Russian VKS, has broken the "ridge" of the terrorist organization ISIS in Syria, have undoubtedly become the main visible example in the international practice of recent years of a convincing military victory over terrorism

CSTO on the "advanced" fight against international terrorism

The stronghold of the main world evil — namely, international terrorism in the world — is dealt a crushing blow. But to talk about his imminent death would be an exaggeration. Having lost a substantial part of their material and human resources in Iraq and Syria, the leaders of the “terrorist international” are forced to change tactics, but they do not abandon the strategic task of expanding their deadly influence on all new countries and regions. According to experts, perhaps the most dangerous recent trend is the creation of remotely activated "sleeping cells" militants in the states of the Central Asian region, where they seep across the Afghan border and come from third countries under the guise of refugees.

This threat is key for the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which unites Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. In the CSTO Collective Security Strategy for the period up to 2025 adopted in October 2016, member states agreed to develop and implement a joint set of preventive and special measures to counter terrorism and religious extremism, including the search for persons involved in terrorist and extremist activities, as well as channels of recruitment and transfer of citizens of the CSTO member states to the zones of armed conflict and vice versa. The strategy also envisages the development and implementation of measures to identify and neutralize financing channels and other resource support for terrorist and extremist activities.

The signing in 2018 of a memorandum of cooperation between the CSTO Secretariat, the CIS Antiterrorist Center and the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure.

The most important and yet unprecedented in international practice has been the decision to develop the procedure and criteria for forming a single list of terrorist and extremist organizations prohibited in CSTO member states, as well as creating a mechanism for the exchange and systematization of information about terrorist and extremist organizations, about persons belonging or suspected in belonging to them and their movements, including with the use of forged documents.

By virtue of their geo-strategic position on the “front line” of combating international terrorism and experiencing real threats emanating from the Afghan frontier zone, the CSTO states are consistently and persistently raising the question of creating a broad international antiterrorist coalition. A landmark event in strengthening the interaction of international organizations in the fight against terrorism was the holding in 2017 in Moscow at the initiative of the CSTO Secretariat a meeting of representatives of the UN counter-terrorism structures, the OSCE, the CIS and the SCO and the signing in 2018 of a memorandum of interaction between the CSTO Secretariat, the CIS Counter-Terrorism Center and Antiterrorist Structure of the SCO.

UN Counter-Terrorism Strategy and its implementation

We can state with satisfaction the desire of the UN to consolidate global efforts to counter the terrorist threat. An important step in this consolidation was the creation last year in the UN structure, on the initiative of its new Secretary General, A. Guterres, the Counter-Terrorism Directorate, and the appointment of an experienced Russian diplomat, V. Voronkov, as deputy secretary general. Demonstration of the seriousness of A. Guterres and his team to deploy the UN "face" to the practical struggle against the terrorist threat became organized on June 28-29 this year. in New York, a high-level anti-terrorism conference with the participation of counterterrorism officials from UN member states. Given its format and agenda, this conference, in which representatives of 150 states took part, was the first forum of its kind in the history of the UN. Broad representation at the forum was provided by regional international organizations, as well as NGOs representing “civil society”.

UN High Level Conference on Terrorism

The keynote speech at the Conference was the adherence to the 2006 Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and relevant UN counter-terrorism resolutions, as well as the need to strengthen international unanimity in the fight against terrorism, i.e. those principles that directly overlap with the CSTO Collective Security Strategy. In his speech at the forum, Deputy Secretary General of the CSTO V. Semerikov focused the attention of the conference participants on the need to combat terrorism to strictly comply with the provisions of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the implementation of the related United Nations Security Council resolution, as well as on the task of creating a broad antiterrorist coalition UN auspices. The statement by the CSTO Deputy Secretary General noted the great importance of the Joint Action Plan (SAP) to implement the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Central Asia, and suggested that it would be expedient to create a coordinating council of regional organizations with information exchange functions by international and regional institutions on comprehensive security issues.

Due to the fact that the activities of terrorist and extremist organizations are inextricably linked to such threats as drug trafficking, the spread of radical ideas on the Internet, illegal migration, V. Semerikov expressed gratitude to representatives of all states and international organizations participating in the "Channel" operations , Proxy and Nelegal, conducted in the CSTO format. He urged those present at the conference to participate more actively in these events, which are yielding good results and have proven to be effective measures in the common fight against the challenges and threats to the security of the modern world.

Deputy Secretary General, Head of the Counter-Terrorism Department, Vladimir Voronkov.

Interaction level

A high assessment of the level of interaction that has recently been established between the CSTO and the UN specialized structures was given during the meeting held by V. Semerikov with the conference organizer, UN Deputy Secretary General V. Voronkov. Its results indicate that the parties have chosen the right vector of joint efforts of the CSTO and the UN in the field of combating international terrorism. V. Voronkov spoke positively about the substantive part of the prepared draft Memorandum between the CSTO Secretariat and the UN Counter-Terrorism Directorate, which is scheduled to be signed on the margins of the next UN General Assembly in September of this year. It was emphasized that today the UN is forming a new CSTO image, and in recent years in such issues as building up antiterrorist potential, countering extremism, drug trafficking and illegal migration, the relations of the CSTO and the UN are gradually reaching a new, higher quality level, promising serious prospects for productive interaction .

Speaking about the prospects, the UN Deputy Secretary General announced plans to organize representative forums, like the current one, at least once every two years in order to institutionalize this format and turn it into a platform for wide and effective cooperation of professionals at the forefront of the fight against international terrorism.

The CSTO secretariat expresses optimism about the results of the New York Forum and proceeds from the premise that calls there for further consolidation of the efforts of the international community in countering international terrorism under the auspices of the UN and involving international regional organizations in this work will be supported by subsequent practical steps. Among them - carrying out in the fall of this year. in Moscow under the auspices of the CSTO representative international conference "Challenges and threats of future potential conflicts. Ways of their prevention and settlement, to which representatives of the leadership of leading international structures, including the UN and the OSCE, are invited.