Counter-Terrorism Needs Global Effort

NOVOSIBIRSK (RIA Novosti) — In spite of the efforts taken by the anti-terrorist coalition, the fight against terrorism is becoming global, reads the final communiqué issued at the 4th international conference of heads of special services, security and law enforcement bodies in Novosibirsk.

According to the conference participants, the priorities of special services in the international security sphere are the following: prevention of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, spread of technologies of WMD production and ways of its delivery; elimination of channels of terrorism financing and promotion of joint efforts against drug trafficking from Afghanistan.

The discussion focused on the fight against suicide bombers. "This problem causes the necessity to boost information exchange between special services in order to increase the level of trust between partners," reads the communiqué.

The conferees also reaffirmed their readiness for developing anti-terrorist interaction during major international events, for instance, for providing security of the session of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Pusan (South Korea) on November 18-19, 2005. Moreover, an agreement was achieved to hold the 5th session of heads of special services in 2006.

The fight against all forms of terrorism should be long-term and systematic, said director of the Russian Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev.

"We should upgrade the mechanism of interaction of special services in the sphere of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and prevention of terrorists’ access to WMD components," Mr. Patrushev noted.

According to the majority of conference participants, terrorism is widely spread today and is a stable contemporary factor.

The fight against terrorism financing is a key trend of counter-terrorism cooperation, the FSB director emphasized.