The 13th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) National Security Council Secretaries was held in Beijing on 21-22 May 2018.
The meeting, which was chaired by China, was attended by India's Deputy National Security Adviser Rajinder Khanna, Presidential Aide and Secretary of the National Security Council of Kazakhstan Nurlan Ermekbaev, State Councillor of China Zhao Kezhi, Secretary of the National Security Council of Kyrgyzstan Damir Sagynbayev, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on National Security Nasser Khan Janjua, Secretary of the National Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the National Security Council of Tajikistan Abdurahim Kahorov, Secretary of the National Security Council of Uzbekistan Viktor Makhmudov, SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov, and Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure Yevgeny Sysoyev.
The delegation leaders met with President of China Xi Jinping.
The parties welcomed delegates from India and Pakistan, who attended the meeting for the first time since the two countries became full members of the SCO.
The meeting was held in a traditionally friendly and constructive atmosphere.
The officials exchanged views on security and stability in the SCO countries and discussed the strengthening of their cooperative efforts against terrorism, separatism and extremism, illegal trafficking in arms and narcotic drugs, and transnational organised crime. They also focused on issues of international information security.
They pointed out the importance of joining forces to create the architecture of a common, comprehensive, sustainable, equal and indivisible security. Such a security would be based on the principles of cooperation, which is necessary for finding collective answers to current challenges and threats and for protecting peace and stability, as well as for developing a coordinated SCO vision of humankind's common future.
The sides stated that the world was currently being transformed, and that a more diverse and multipolar geopolitical landscape was emerging. The international security sphere is also experiencing serious and in-depth changes. Terrorist activity, illegal drug trafficking and trans-border organised crime have a tendency to expand. International terrorist organisations are trying to penetrate the SCO region. These challenges seriously threaten the security and stability of SCO member-states and call for elaborating joint comprehensive and effective approaches to countering them. Such approaches should hinge on equitable cooperation and mutual trust.
While confirming that the fight against all forms and manifestations of terrorism is a highly important task for SCO member-states, the sides noted the need for the adoption of comprehensive measures in this field.
The sides praised the efforts to establish a common global anti-terrorist front under the auspices of the UN that would operate based on international law. They reaffirmed their rejection of the policy of double standards with regard to terrorists and extremists. They underscored the pivotal role of states and their law enforcement agencies in countering terrorism and extremism on their territory and also as part of relevant international cooperation.
They noted the importance of continued efforts to pass the UN Comprehensive Convention against International Terrorism by consensus.
The sides praised the initiative of Kazakhstan to launch the Astana Code of Conduct in International Anti-Terrorist Operations in the UN format.
The heads of delegations noted the significance of the SCO Convention on Countering Extremism, signed 9 June 2017 in Astana, and the approval of a cooperation programme to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism for 2019-2021 during the upcoming meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State in Qingdao, the People's Republic of China.
The sides called for effectively fulfilling the requirements of specialised UN Security Council resolutions as regards efforts to counter any forms of financing terrorism and providing material-technical support to it.
They noted the importance of passing a joint appeal by SCO heads of state to young people, as well as an action programme to implement this document, at the upcoming SCO summit in Qingdao. Both documents are called on to prevent young people from becoming involved in the activities of terrorist and extremist organisations.
The sides praised the holding of an international science-practical conference on priority tasks of international cooperation to counter extremism and terrorism (Moscow, 3 April 2018).
The heads of delegations praised the results of an international conference on countering terrorism and extremism (Dushanbe, 3-4 May 2018) that became an important venue for multilateral cooperation on the above-mentioned matters.
The sides expressed concern with more profound threats in the sphere of illegal drug trafficking and noted the need to elaborate a joint approach towards this issue.
They noted the importance of submitting an SCO concept to prevent abuse of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances at the SCO summit in Qingdao.
They positively assessed the results of the joint high-level SCO-UNODC event United Nations and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Fight against Narcotic Drugs: New Threats and Joint Efforts (Vienna, 12 March 2018).
The sides noted that the stabilisation of the situation in Afghanistan was a highly important factor for preserving and maintaining security in the SCO region. They urged the international community to expand cooperation, with the UN's central coordinating role, for resolving the situation in Afghanistan by political means, creating favourable conditions for the country's sustained economic development and ensuring the well-being of the Afghan nation.
They noted the results of the meeting of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group (Moscow, 11 October 2017) and supported plans to hold the Group's next meeting in May 2018 in Beijing.
The heads of delegations praised the results of the 27 March 2018 Tashkent international conference on Afghanistan Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Connectivity as a positive contribution to the peace process in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
They pointed out the positive role of the Astana process in facilitating a political settlement in the Syrian Arab Republic and reaffirmed the need for honouring UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The sides called for the continuation of the Geneva process under the auspices of the UN in the interests of conducting an all-inclusive political process under the supervision of the Syrians and by the Syrians themselves in conditions of guaranteeing Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. In this connection, they noted the importance of the results of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi.
The sides advocated the consistent and unfailing implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to resolve the Iranian nuclear programme.
They reaffirmed the importance of a political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine by strictly complying with the Minsk Agreements of 12 February 2015.
The parties noted the need for unfailingly honouring the Treaty on the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia and the fastest possible enactment of the protocol on security guarantees for all signatory states.
The sides agreed to continue maintaining effective border control, to exchange information on suspected accomplices in terrorist activity, to investigate the crimes of transnational terrorist organisations and to prevent the movements of foreign terrorist fighters and terrorist groups.
It was stressed that information and communications technology, including the internet, were being actively used to promote all manifestations of terrorism, separatism and extremism, to recruit militants, to expand terrorist activities and to interfere in the domestic affairs of other states as well as to commit other criminal acts.
The sides called for intensifying practical cooperation in the field of international information security and drafting universal regulations, principles and norms of states' responsible conduct in the media sector under UN auspices.
The SCO Secretary General and the Executive Committee Director of the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure delivered reports on efforts to maintain security.
China's Presidency of the SCO and efforts to prepare for the meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State in Qingdao were given a high assessment.
Those present agreed to hold the next meeting of Secretaries of Security Councils of SCO Member-States in the Kyrgyz Republic.
After the meeting, a protocol of the 13th meeting of SCO Security Council Secretaries was signed.
The heads of delegations noted the high level of the meeting's organisation and thanked the Chinese side for its cordial hospitality.