DUSHANBE, 21.05.2019. (NIAT Khovar) – Today, before the start of the 46th meeting of the Council of Heads of CIS Security Agencies and Special Services, the Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee and Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev spoke briefly with Khovar’s correspondent.

Such meetings are a regular occurance, being held twice a year.

“The meetings and continual contact between the heads of special services are due to situation that is developing around the CIS and within our countries. Therefore, we see that the criminal world, unfortunately, international terrorist organizations, are uniting,» says Lebedev.

As citizens of many countries are represented within the ranks of criminal terrorist irganizations, their defeat requires united effort among all countries, contends  Lebedev.

“Each of our states alone, even with strong structures, still cannot defeat these criminal groups. There are a lot of problems. The situation in the Middle East and, unfortunately, the unstable ongoing situation in Afghanistan prompt us, first of all, to strictly guard our borders and prevent the infiltration of terrorists and extremists into the territory of the CIS countries,” he says.

“Today, just when the leaders of the CIS special services gathered, this topic sounds particularly relevant. In all the speeches, the common thread is that it is important to unite our efforts, exchange information, and to take collective action to counter these criminal forces. The CIS Anti-Terrorism Center is active in this direction,” says Lebedev with emphasis.

“We, all participants of this meeting, of course, are very touched by the fact that we were received by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Today, during a frank talk in the presidential residence, we also had a good, substantive and businesslike talk. We need to unite in order to resist terrorism, extremism, and religious fanaticism,” he reiterates.

“We received positive evaluations of our activity, and secondly, interesting proposals, voiced by the President of Tajikistan. We expressed gratitude to the President of Tajikistan and support, not only for the integration of cooperation within the CIS, but also the specific activities of the CIS special services,” notes Lebedev.

“A lot of meetings, sessions and forums within the framework of the CIS were held in the hospitable Tajik land in 2018. In late September last year, the heads of government of the CIS countries, foreign ministers, defense ministers, and presidents of the Commonwealth countries met here in Dushanbe and made a very important decision,” says Lebedev.

“Tajikistan has passed its chairmanship to Turkmenistan, but I want to say with satisfaction that it has not reduced its activity within the CIS. Tajikistan continues to actively participate in the integration interaction within the Commonwealth. Many international meetings are still taking place here. An international conference on combating terrorism has just ended, where both the CIS and the UN structures were represented, which is very important,” he adds.

“We have good contact with the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, we interact, participate in UN events. Why? Because as I have already said, alone we cannot defeat these criminal forces, — only together. It seems to me that today’s meeting of the heads of special services will give a new impetus to our work and will further strengthen the interaction between our countries,» Lebedev notes.