TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -

On 22 October, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) and Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), Petko Draganov, visited Uzbekistan to take part at the Third Conference on Cooperation against International Terrorism and Extremism between SCO Member States and Observer States, organized by the Executive Committee of the Regional Antiterrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (EC RATS SCO) based in Tashkent.

Addressing the conference SRSG underlined increasing threat of terrorism and stated that in the modern world it was impossible to defeat international terrorism and extremism alone.Along these lines, he noted the UN and the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s consistent efforts to promote the idea of broad international cooperation to combat and prevent this scourge. In line with the UN Charter and UNRCCA mandate, the Regional Centre draws on potential of regional organizations as RATS SCO that possesses knowledge about the ‘local’ specifics, and has capacity to complement the UN efforts in the field of preventive diplomacy. In the margins of the event, the SRSG Draganov met with the Director of the Executive Committee of RATS/SCO Zhang Xinfeng. The sides welcomed incremental and effective partnership, including within the framework of implementation in Central Asia of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, and noted the importance of continuing the dialogue and mutually beneficial interaction.