SCO summit flexes anti-terror muscles
By Hu Qihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-06 05:50

ASTANA: Leaders of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) agreed to strengthen their fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism at a summit meeting yesterday.

The group also called for the US-led anti-terrorist coalition in Afghanistan to set a timeframe for withdrawing its forces from SCO member states.

President Hu Jintao (L), Kyrgyz Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev (2nd L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) attend a session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the capital Astana, Kazakhstan, July 5, 2005. [Reuters]

In a joint declaration, presidents of the six member-states - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - pledged to take "comprehensive and effective" action to protect their territories, population and key public facilities and infrastructures from the "destructive impact" of new threats.

"The three forces - terrorism, separatism and extremism - pose a severe threat to the member states and the region," said President Hu Jintao at the summit.

"We have to make every effort to step up security co-operation or else all our talk about stability will be pointless."

He called for the swift sharing of information in response to emergencies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the fight against terrorism and consolidation of peace and stability in Central Asia "a vital problem which the SCO members and leaders must assign priority to."

"New regional threats are of a trans-border nature ... There are people who place orders and execute them. Our task is to find them and render them harmless and also to prevent their activity," he added

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