Statement by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on combating terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crime
| 2009-3-27 |
The Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,
Supporting the efforts of the Afghan Government, with the assistance of the internationa1 community, aimed at ensuring social and economic development, building democratic institutions, strengthening operational capability of the Afghan national army and police and enhancing the effectiveness of law enforcement bodies,
Recognizing the interconnected challenges facing Afghanistan, including continued terrorist activities and the cultivation, production and trafficking of narcotic drugs, and that both pose a serious threat the stability of Afghanistan, its neighbours and other countries,
While welcoming efforts of the Afghan Government to decrease cultivation of opium, express concern about the continued cultivation and production of narcotics drugs as a source of financing terrorist activities in Afghanistan, the region and abroad,
Supporting the efforts of the Afghan Government and International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) to improve law enforcement and combat the production and trafficking of narcotic drugs and curtailing the flow of precursors more effectively,
Noting the significant assistance provided by the SCO Member States to the Afghan Government and their commitment to sustain such support for tackling the challenges in Afghanistan,
Stressing the importance of maintaining the leading role of the United Nations in coordinating international assistance in Afghanistan,
Attaching great importance to the efforts made by international and regional organizations including the United Nations (UN), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to combat the threats of terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crime,
Declare the following:
1. Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking
We call upon all States concerned to implement, in the framework of the United Nations activities, and other international and regional organizations, existing international strategies to combat narcotics in Afghanistan and the region, which in particular provide for strict implementation of Resolution 1817 of the UN Security Council and decisions of relevant international fora, as well as for creating and reinforcing the “anti-drug and financial security belts” in the region.
We call for further improvement of the SCO drug control cooperation mechanism as well as the elaboration of plans of practical cooperation between anti-drug agencies of the SCO Member States and other states of the region, including information exchange, precursor control and close interaction between this mechanism and relevant UN agencies, as well as other international and regional organizations involved in combating cultivation, production and trafficking of narcotics.
We stress the need to strengthen international and regional cooperation to counter the threat of narcotics, including through support of programs and projects implemented by the UN, the CSTO, the CIS, the EU, and the OSCE in Afghanistan and Central Asia related to border security and management.
We call for joining the efforts of all States and organizations concerned aimed at creating the “anti-drug and financial security belts” in the region.
We welcome the fact that ISAF in cooperation with the Government of Afghanistan joined the fight against drug production and proliferation in Afghanistan and support its wide-ranging participation in multilateral efforts in this area. We consider it important that the UN Security Council takes this into account when discussing the ISAF mandate next time.
We call for wider cooperation between the SCO, CSTO and CIS on the anti-drug and counter-terrorism tracks, and stress the importance of the multilateral preventive operation named Operation Channel carried out under the CSTO auspices, as well as of increasing the number of observer States participating in this operation.
We believe that full operationalization of the Central Asia Regional Information and Coordination Centre established to combat illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors with the participation of Afghanistan will strengthen control over the illicit production and abuse of and trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors in Central Asia.
2. Combating International Terrorism
We believe that the list of priorities for the international community in combating terrorism should include the improvement of its international legal framework, in particular early elaboration and adoption of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism as well as the elaboration of regional counter-terrorism legal instruments.
We call for adherence to relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council concerning international terrorism.
We call for stopping the attempts to spread terrorist ideology as well as for strict compliances with UN SC Resolution 1624 (2005), which condemns all acts of terrorism irrespective of their motivation, and call upon Member States to prohibit by law terrorist acts and incitement to commit such acts, as well as to deny safe heaven to those guilty of committing these acts; and we consider it important to advance international, inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogue in order to fight terrorist ideology, which would involve the civil society, including religious leaders, mass media, business communities and educational structures.
We reaffirm our intention to continue participating in the activities of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Eurasian Group on combating Money-Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG), in particular with a view to stop the financial flows related to illicit trafficking in drugs and their precursors, and to make it a separate area in the EAG and FATF activities.
The SCO Member States intend to invest more efforts in combating terrorist threat using the capacity of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure to a greater extent, and the practice of joint SCO counter-terrorism exercises, and we invite Observer States and other countries concerned to participate in the collective efforts, including those related to creating the “anti-terrorist security belt”, and consider taking part in transiting non-military cargoes needed by ISAF.
The SCO Member States with the assistance of the Afghan Government will advance cooperation in responding to terrorist threats, ensuring security and protection of their citizens and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan.
3. Combating Transnational Organized Crime
We reaffirm our firm commitment to counter the growing illegal trafficking in arms, munitions, explosive and other types of transnational organized crime, which pose a serious threat to the lives and security of our peoples.
We believe that an effective coordination mechanism for the competent authorities to be established within the SCO in the form of meetings between the ministers of interior affairs and public security, as well as fostering and developing links with competent authorities of other States, international and regional agencies will help in combating organized crime.
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We believe that a regular dialogue on joint action against abovementioned threats to be launched within the SCO with participations of other States and international organizations concerned could become an effective supplement to the existing international fora for addressing the challenges of terrorism, narcotics and organized crime in the region.
We express our commitment to enhance cooperation with all relevant States and international and regional organizations, namely UN, EU, CIS, CSTO, OSCE, NATO and CICA on matters of common interest in the spirit of this Statement and the Plan of Action of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on combating terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crime.
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