Ms. Ruchira Kamboj, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (centre).
On 20 December 2022, the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee held a regional open briefing focused on Central Asia.
Although there have been a relatively limited number of terrorism-related attacks or incidents in Central Asia in recent years, the terrorist threat to the region should not be underestimated. Central Asia continues to face significant security challenges, also because of its immediate proximity to regions marked by terrorist activity. Thousands of individuals from Central Asia travelled to the conflict zones of the Middle East to join the ranks of terrorist groups as foreign terrorist fighters.
“Given the importance of Central Asia to the international fights against terrorism, some States of the region have been visited more than once. Earlier this month, the Committee concluded the physical component of the second follow-up assessment visit to Uzbekistan,” Ms. Ruchira Kamboj, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, said in her opening remarks, referring to the visits carried out by the Committee to assess Member States’ compliance with all relevant Security Council resolutions.
Representatives of five Central Asian Member States briefed the Counter-Terrorism Committee.
Ambassadors and other representatives of the Central Asian Member States delivered presentations on their efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism in line with relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, highlighting progress achieved and remaining challenges, especially in light of evolving threats.
The briefing provided an opportunity to re-evaluate the evolution of the terrorist threat in Central Asia and took stock of existing United Nations activities, as well as those of international and regional mechanisms, which are aimed at supporting Member States in the region.
Regional and international organisations providing presentations on their respective work pertaining to Central Asia included the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT); the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA); the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team pursuant to resolutions 1526 (2004) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da'esh), Al-Qaida and the Taliban; the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center (CIS-ATC); the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE); as well as the Asia Group Foundation, which is a civil society organization active in the subregion.
A webcast recording of the open briefing can be accessed through UN Web TV.
Photos from the open briefing are available on CTED’s Flickr account, available here.