Moscow, December 4 — The BRICS+ Counter-Terrorism Conference, held December 3–4 under the auspices of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, brought together more than a hundred representatives from government agencies, academia, civil society, and international organisations to address emerging global security challenges.

Delegates from BRICS countries and partner states joined counter-terrorism units from the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The Conference was titled “National and Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategies Amid Emerging Security Challenges and Threats.”

This forum brought together over one hundred representatives of specialised agencies, academia and the civil society from BRICS+ and partner countries, as well as counter-terrorist units within international organisations, including the United Nations, the CIS, the CSTO and the SCO.

The opening session included remarks by Deputy Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Yury Kokov, Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky, senior official from Russia’s Federal Security Service, as well as Deputy Head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism Eihab Omaish, Deputy Secretary-General of the CSTO Valery Semerikov, and Head of the CIS Counter-Terrorist Centre Yevgeny Sysoyev.

In their remarks, speakers emphasised the need for the competent government agencies and civil society institutions to consolidate their efforts in countering international terrorism and ensuring stability around the world.

During the two days of the conference, participants discussed the latest developments in countering terrorism and extremism with the agenda focusing on the objective of ensuring the complete eradication of international terrorist organisations, including ISIS, preventing the use of extremist and terrorist groups in hybrid warfare and when interfering in the domestic affairs of sovereign states, as well as radicalisation as a pathway to terrorism and extremism and a key tool for causing social and political upheavals within countries.

Delegates stressed the importance of taking measures to prevent the spread of fascist and neo-Nazi ideas, including those aimed at revising and falsifying history. In addition to this, they affirmed that relying on terrorist organisations in the pursuit of political and economic agendas was unacceptable.

This international forum facilitated a fruitful exchange of opinions and helped its participants align their positions, while also offering fertile ground for articulating forward-looking theoretical and methodological approaches to countering terrorist and extremist activity.

The Russian Federation would like to thank all the representatives from BRICS and partner countries, as well as international organisations who took an active part in this conference and reaffirmed their readiness to work closely together on a wide range of matters dealing with the counter-terrorist agenda.