Moscow to host the 2nd international conference "Armed Forces in the Fight Against Terrorism"

Participants in the 2nd international conference "Armed Forces in the Fight Against Terrorism", to open on Monday, will center on joint efforts to counteract terrorism, conference organisers told RIA Novosti. The conference is being held under the aegis of the Russia-NATO Council.

The opening remarks were made by Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov and NATO Secretary General George Robertson.

High-ranking military, political and scientific officials from Russia and NATO member-countries, executive officials of NATO governing bodies and representatives of Russian law-enforcement agencies will take part in the conference.

The conference agenda includes crisis management, the role of exercises in the antiterrorist fight, security cooperation, information exchange, methods and means of the fight against terrorism and extremism in various forms and other burning issues.

The importance of this international conference was outlined by Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov at the 1st international conference "Armed Forces in the Fight Against Terrorism," that was held on February 4, 2002 in Rome.

The Minister noted then that "it is necessary to develop international cooperation that will provide effective mechanisms to neutralize this evil, i.e. from the use of force to the liquidation of financing of terrorists" to effectively fight terrorism.

In his opinion, "armed forces must play a crucial role in the fight against terrorism, in particular in the liquidation of material basis and international terrorist network." "We must create an atmosphere of utter negation of terrorism in the world," Sergei Ivanov said. "We can achieve this goal if international terrorism is faced with "international law and justice."