Danube region countries join efforts in combating terrorism

The ministers of interior of Danube countries at a special conference here on Friday agreed that the region should join forces in combating terrorism, a joint declaration said.

The declaration, adopted by the Ministerial Conference on Combating Terrorism in the Danube Region, said that in order to achieve efficiency in countering terrorism, the cooperation in the areas of prevention, border security, critical infrastructure protection from terrorist acts and information exchange should be intensified.

Convinced that prevention is the best protection, the ministers stressed that the Danube Region countries should focus on prevention of radicalisation, deradicalisation, counter narratives, as well as cooperation with civil society and close contacts with communities, the joint declaration said.

The ministers outlined that counteraction to terrorist propaganda and recruitment of terrorists on the Internet is of key importance for eliminating the factors leading to terrorism, the declaration said.

According to the document, the ministers also shared the view that the common preventive capacity of the Danube Region should be strengthened through coordination of the national prevention strategies, regular exchange of experience and best practices and joint specialized training of experts where possible.

Taking into account that the protection of critical infrastructure from terrorist acts is an important issue in the context of the measures for preparedness and prevention, the ministers agreed that appropriate measures to examine the weak spots of transport systems and to enhance the security of roads, trains, river ports and seaports should be applied.

"To this end the Danube Region countries should focus their efforts on applying a broader scope of security measures using the latest technologies. At a later stage, other sectors of critical infrastructure could be considered to enrich the cooperation," the declaration said.

In view of efficient counteraction to terrorism, the ministers reiterated the commitment to enhance further the exchange of information and intelligence between the competent authorities of their countries. "The ministers agreed that the existing information sharing tools should be used to the best possible extent in a more systematic manner," the declaration said.

Earlier on Friday at a joint press conference, Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumiana Bachvarova said radicalism is actually already in Europe, and "we have to take very categorical and rapid measures for its restriction."

She felt satisfied with the level of willingness of the Danube countries to cooperate with each other in the fight against terrorism, Bachvarova said.

Joachim Herrmann, Interior minister of the German state of Bavaria, said in turn that the issue of border security is extremely important because terrorists are trained mainly in the Middle East.

All we are interested to be able to prevent the entry and exit of terrorists to and from our countries, Herrmann said.

Dragan Mektic, Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who also participated in the joint press conference, said his country has problems with extremism, terrorism and citizens who are now on the frontline in Syria or fought there and have come back to their homeland.

Therefore, Bosnia and Herzegovina is interested in all kinds of European and regional cooperation, such as sharing experiences, intelligence information and everything that is necessary to prevent terrorist activity, Mektic said. Endit