UN Chief Spotlights Partnership to Fight Terrorism

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has lauded the counter-terrorism partnership between the world body and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. At an event on the UN-SCO cooperation on peace on , security and stability, Guterres on Tuesdaypraised the SCO as a leading player in regional diplomacy, promoting multilateralism and fostering cooperation to address the most pressing peace and security issues in Eurasia, Xinhua news agency reported.

Co-organized by the Russian UN mission and the SCO, the event was dedicated to the topic of the linkages between terrorism and organized crime and financing terrorist activities through drug trafficking. Guterres noted that in the “increasingly complex global peace and security environment,” improving understanding of the nexus between terrorism, transnational organized crime and drug trafficking is essential, “so this meeting has a particularly relevant meaning at the present time.” He outlined that “these interconnected issues” are important to the stability and security of the member states of the SCO, and the UN agencies are “natural partners in tackling them.”

The SCO is an intergovernmental international organization, the creation of which was announced in June 2001 in Shanghai, China, by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The SCO has eight member states, including the founding six nations as well as India and Pakistan. Recalling partnership with the regional group, Guterres said the UN Secretariat is strengthening its institutional links with the SCO. The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism and other UN entities are developing cooperation frameworks with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure, he added. (IANS)

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