SCO must contribute to international dialogue on counter-extremism - Nazarbayev
ASTANA. July 10 (Interfax) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has proposed including the creation of a global counter-terrorism network on the agenda of the next United Nations Assembly.
"SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) must contribute to a dialogue among members of the global community, who are prepared to fight violent extremism. It would be right to put this issue of the agenda of the upcoming UN Assembly in order to create a joint global counter-terrorism network," Nazarbayev told the SCO Council of heads of state in Ufa on Friday, according to his press office.
Since the beginning of the 21st century the number of terror victims has risen fivefold to around 150,000 people, Nazarbayev said. More than 80% of these cases took place in Asia, Middle East and Africa. Nearly 70% of inhumane crimes against civilians and countries were committed by four organizations: the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
"The ideology and methods of achieving goals of the 'forces of contemporary evil' radically contradict the canons and philosophy of all religions without exception. Having our citizens fighting alongside terrorists is becoming a serious problem," said the Kazakh leader, pointing to the overdue need to devise a common international approach to countering this threat.
"I hope the SCO program on fighting terrorism, extremism and separatism and the convention on counter-terrorism will become a point of departure for our common cause," the Kazakh president said.
In this context he outlined a number of SCO priorities, including the need for international cooperation in order to eliminate sources of financing terrorists, a legal framework for identifying and freezing their assets, and support for UN efforts to devise an action plan to prevent violent extremism.