The latest developments in the countries of Central Asia show that various force still continue devising plans to destabilize the situation in the region, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said at the Fourth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia at the Cholpon-Ata resort town in Kyrgyzstan on July 21.
Rahmon did not specified what kind of developments he meant.
“Central Asia continues remaining an important region for global powers and undergoes a difficult period of its development,” Rahmon was cited as saying by AKIpress.
“The situation in the world is changing rapidly; competition and confrontation between global actors are increasing, moving from cold war to the heated phase. Global geopolitical changes change their shape, there is a transformation of the existing world order,” Tajik leader said.
He named the existing challenges and threats: terrorism; extremism; trafficking in narcotic drugs and weapons; and cybercrime.
“These issues are not unfamiliar to the Central Asian countries. The latest developments in our countries have shown that certain forces continue taking attempts to involve our citizens in protest actions, in particular through social networks. In this context, steps are clearly visible when ideological and religious immaturity of certain sections of our population, first of all youth, is used to replenish the ranks of various extremist and terrorist groups,” he said.
According to him, the most serious challenge is promoting an extremely destructive ideology of religious radicalism in the region.
“The so-called sleeper cells can express themselves at any time, including with active support from outside. The latest developments have shown that religious radical extremists are able to use any protest potential of our society for their own selfish purposes,” Rahmon noted.
According to him, people in Tajikistan are well aware of what threat these distractive forces pose to security.
Tajik leader proposed to intensify cooperation between special services for the purpose of creating “specific mechanisms in joint struggle against the dissemination of radical ideology in the region.”
