SCO members keen to work together on border security

China is willing to better cooperate with the other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, to improve border security risk management and control mechanisms, while promoting the application of modern scientific and technological means and intelligent equipment, said a senior official with the National Immigration Administration, or NIA, on Wednesday.

Such means are aimed at further enhancing the ability to respond to security threats, and to jointly build a port border security line, said Liu Haitao, deputy head of the NIA, at a media briefing following the 10th Meeting of the Heads of Border Authorities of the Competent Bodies of the Member States of the SCO, held in Shanghai.

"We call on the border defense departments of SCO member states to comprehensively deepen practical cooperation in political security, counter-terrorism and terrorism prevention, and port and border security, so as to jointly safeguard regional security and stability," said Liu.

"We also call on that we should further strengthen the exchange of information, carry out joint border defense operations, crack down on drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crimes in accordance with the law, and resolutely eradicate the soil that breeds terrorism and extremism," he said.

At the meeting, the participants summarized the situation of a joint border defense operation carried out by the border departments of the SCO member states from Aug 15 to Oct 31 last year, exchanged and assessed the situation on the borders of the member states, and reviewed and approved the work plan of the expert group of the border departments for next year.

They said that during last year's joint border defense operation, more than 12,000 offenders were arrested, and more than 9,600 individuals involved in illegal entry and exit were checked and blocked at border ports. Also 75 guns, 13,800 bullets, and more than 1,000 controlled knives were confiscated, and 8.8 tons of drugs and more than 1,178 tons of smuggled goods were seized.

Ruslan Mirzayev, director of the executive committee of the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, or RATS, said that the organization will coordinate with the border departments of member states to conscientiously implement the consensus reached at the meeting, further strengthening the cooperation and coordination mechanisms between the border departments of the SCO member states.

They will also work together to crack down on violent terrorist forces, national separatist forces, and religious extremist forces, as well as cross-border crimes, so as to better safeguard the security and stability of the region.