Tajik leader calls for new structure within Shanghai body to fight terror

ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
24 Jun 05

DUSHANBE

Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov has spoken in favour of the formation
of rapid deployment forces within the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO). Addressing a meeting of the Council of Defence
Ministers of the CIS states, which opened in Dushanbe today, he said
that the SCO needed “strong collective rapid deployment forces to
counter international terrorism and religious extremism”.

The CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] member states
(Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan) have
already formed such a military structure – collective rapid deployment
forces in the Central Asia collective security region.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes Russia, China,
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

President Rahmonov also said that “the most important” tasks today
were to maintain peace and stability not only within a country but
also beyond it, and to increase the combat readiness of the armed
forces of the CIS states.

International terrorism and religious extremism threaten the vital
interests of every CIS country, Rahmonov said. “The
internationalization of the activities of international terrorist and
extremist groups is particularly dangerous,” he stressed.

Representatives of the defence ministries of all CIS countries, except
for Georgia, Moldova and Turkmenistan, are attending the meeting.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress