Kazakh foreign minister proposes to create in SCO expert group to analyze ISIS
ASTANA. June 4 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan regards the terrorist group Islamic State as a direct security threat to Eurasia, Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrisov said.
"Daish [the Arabic abbreviation for ISIS] has launched a massive propaganda campaign that actively supplies it with radical activists, including citizens of the SCO countries. There is a risk that people carrying ISIS ideology - bandits who received combat experience in Syria and Iraq - may come to our countries with ISIS ideology," Idrisov said at a conference on security and stability in the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in Moscow on Thursday.
The text of Idrisov's speech was disseminated by the Kazakh Foreign Ministry press service.
"We believe that, besides the law enforcement agencies' reaction to this threat, joint actions are needed to counter the propaganda and discredit ISIS and similar structures, making them less attractive to young people," the minister said.
Idrisov also said there is a need to intensify the interaction both inside the SCO and with the other continental security organizations, primarily the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
"Specifically, Kazakhstan suggests creating in the SCO an expert group to thoroughly and deeply analyze the phenomenon of the terrorist group Daish," Idrisov said.
Saying that citizens of many countries, including Western, have joined the ISIS, the foreign minister also called for the intensification of the efforts to counter the group, including on social networking sites.
At the end of his speech, the Kazakh foreign minister mentioned the main fundamental approaches of Kazakhstan to global and regional policy. He said Kazakhstan always demonstrates independence of its foreign policies on the basis of a balance of interests and operates on the basis of the country's national interests.
The minister reiterated that Kazakhstan "favors win-win cooperation."
"Our actions are dictated by the confidence that there is a need to form between all sides a dialogue and confidence regime, which is a central element of Kazakhstan's foreign policies," Idrisov said.
"Kazakhstan is interested in the politically and economically stable and safe development of the SCO region. We maintain regular political dialogue at all levels with our partners, we try to expand economic and investment relations, and we are working on uniting our efforts to face these threat and challenges together," Idrisov said.