MOSCOW/ASTANA, June 3 (RIA Novosti) - Secretaries of the Security Councils of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) agreed to hold joint anti-terrorist exercises. This decision was made at the session of secretaries in Kazakhstan's capital Astana.
The SCO comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan was established on June 15, 2001.
The secretaries also decided to make a list of terrorist organizations and people involved in terrorist acts as soon as possible.
"Discussing the developments in Central Asia, we expressed concern over frequent attacks by terrorists, separatists and extremists aiming at destabilizing the countries and turning the region into a new zone of international tensions," the secretaries said in a final statement.
The second session of the SCO security council secretaries was attended by secretaries of the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Russian and Tajik security councils, Bulat Utemuratov, Miroslav Niyazov, Igor Ivanov and Amirkul Azmiov, Chinese Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang and Uzbek National Security Council Secretary Ruslan Mirzayev.
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, currently in Astana, the fight against new threats and challenges will be the key issue on the agenda of the SCO foreign ministers.
The SCO foreign ministers will hold a session in Astana on June 3-4 (the Kazakh capital already hosted a similar session in February 2005).
"Such proactive contacts are caused by our striving for using the potential of the organization for large-scale and multi-format cooperation," Lavrov said.
The session of the foreign ministers will also focus on preparations for the SCO summit in Astana due on July 5-6, as well as priority aspects of regional cooperation and prospects of the SCO development, Lavrov said. The ministers will also discuss key international problems.
