Moscow urges all members of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, addressing the CICA summit in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe on Saturday.
“There is a need to boost cooperation in detecting and eliminating terrorist groups, as well as in cutting off their sources of finance, which include drug trafficking. It is important to make every possible effort to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on chemical and biological weapons, or any weapons of mass destruction,” Putin pointed out.
According to him, “it is only possible to ensure truly sustainable stability in Asia through resolving crises and conflicts, and taking consistent steps to counter the threat of terrorism.” Putin also called on CICA countries “to prevent propaganda of terrorist ideas.”
The Russian president paid particular attention to the situation in Afghanistan, “where radical extremist organizations, including those driven out of the Middle East, seek to step up their activities.” He added that Russia continued efforts to facilitate the intra-Afghan dialogue. In addition, in Putin’s words, as the chairing country of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Russia plans to implement a roadmap aimed at boosting security, economic and humanitarian cooperation with Afghanistan, which had been adopted at the SCO summit in Bishkek on June 14.
Putin added that Russia was determined to cooperate with all CICA members to accomplish major tasks for the sake of strengthening peace and stability in Asia. “We call for intensifying joint efforts to build an Asian system of equal and indivisible security based on universally recognized principles of international law and the United Nations Charter,” the Russian leader emphasized.