“Attacks around the world demonstrate that terrorist groups are still in a position to access financial resources,” said OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger. He said that building the capacity of financial oversight and regulatory systems, as well as of prosecutorial and judicial authorities, is tremendously important. “I am confident that high-level discussions will help strengthen regional approaches to countering terrorist financing and, at the same time, give fresh impetus to evolving discussions at the global level.”

 

The OSCE conference in Turkmenistan was aimed at fostering regional co-operation among the Central Asian States in addressing this serious challenge to security and exploring potential links with organized crime through discussions and exchange of good practices related to countering terrorist financing and misuse of new internet technologies by organized crime.

 

“Turkmenistan attaches special attention to international co-operation and is actively interacting with the United Nations, OSCE, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Eurasian Group on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism EAG and other organizations in the area of countering terrorist financing,” said Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan Sylap Velbegov. “We intend to further enhance our engagement as the country has applied for joining the Egmont Group, which will foster the efficient exchange of information with financial intelligence services of other countries.”

 

Velbegov said that he believes that the regional conference will help develop new partnership models, build on the compatibility of interests of the participating states, to counter terrorism and organized crime, which pose serious threats to universal security.

 

Lukáš Parízek, Slovak State Secretary and Special Representative for the OSCE Chairmanship stressed: “We must do more to detect and suppress terrorist financing channels. Terrorist groups have proven adept at exploiting the Internet and social media platforms for networking and raising funds. We need to develop more effective ways to prevent and counter the misuse of the Internet by terrorists while respecting fundamental rights and freedoms.” Parízek continued by expressing his wish that discussions today will help identify best practices and lessons learned and strengthen the foundation for pragmatic, regional co-operation.

Image: OSCE Secretary General Tomas Greminger addresses the participants of the OSCE-organized high-level regional conference on countering terrorist financing and organized crime, Ashgabat, 17 April 2019. (OSCE)

Source: OSCE