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G8 Ministers of Justice and Interior - 16 June 2006, Moscow

28 March 2012

Press Conference on the Results of the G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial, Moscow, 16 June 2006

Nurgaliyev: Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Today we have just finished the work of an extremely important conference that took place in the format of the G8. That was a conference of the ministers of the interior, the ministers of justice and the prosecutors general. We have covered a wide range of issues, including combating terrorism and trans-border organized crime.

Special attention was paid to improving cooperation, including in the legal sphere and assisting each other in investigating criminal cases. We also discussed cyber crime, issues of cyber space as well as problems of illegal migration.

We all came to the conclusion that nowadays all countries need a new and more effective anti-criminal and anti-terrorist strategy.

And we need to step up our cooperation to be more effective in fighting new forms of terrorism that include radicalization, recruitment of new terrorists and biological weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction. Special attention should be paid to the safety and security of transportation, information systems and other modern technologies.

After condemning acts of terrorism, the participating ministers from the G8 countries confirmed the benefits of establishing peace, security and more effective law enforcement and adopted a number of documents, among which would be the following: the principles of the G8 countries in the field of international cooperation against instigation and support of acts of terror; the best practices for more effective passenger and cargo control at the borders; recommendations of the G8 countries in the field of anti-terrorist protection of railways and subways. An important role will be played by the new methodologies of passenger and cargo data evaluation systems.

The participating countries stressed that it is necessary to implement those principles and recommendations not only in the G8 countries themselves but far beyond their borders. The participating states mentioned that it is necessary to continue to develop the mechanism of partnership between federal and private business structures in fighting terrorism and welcomed the upcoming conference that will be a global forum on PP partnership that will take place in November of this year in Moscow.

It goes without saying that a special place was devoted to legal mechanisms of fighting terrorism and transnational organized crime. The ministers stressed once again that it is important not to allow safe havens to terrorists but at the same time observing the principles of the Geneva Convention on refugees and Resolution No.1373 of the UN Security Council. In accordance with the above- mentioned conventions political motivations are not considered valid reasons preventing extradition of terrorists. Another important point was the emerging agreement that DNA evidence should be shared when it comes to investigating acts of terrorism and other criminal acts, and it is necessary and timely to set up a relevant mechanism for such data exchange.

We also discussed issues related to sharing accumulated international experience in combating terrorism, as well as comparative analysis of relevant pieces of legislation on that score. We discussed the necessity of improving effective countermeasures that will prevent IT terrorism and terrorist acts in this sphere of high technologies. For that it is necessary to devise a set of measures to prevent such possible criminal acts, including in the sphere of telecommunication. That includes work against the selling of private data, counterfeit information and application of viruses and other harmful computer programs. We will instruct our experts to generate unified approaches to fighting cyber criminality, and we will need an international legal base for this particular work, and we will apply all of that to prevent terrorists from using computer and Internet sites for hiring new terrorists and the recruitment of other illegal actors.

We stressed the importance of financial support coming from the G-8 countries to help Interpol and other relevant organizations set up a database against child abuse and other related types of crime.

Illegal migration was also discussed, which is a source of hiring mercenaries, extremists, a channel for selling weapons, drugs and human trafficking. The participants in the meeting expressed support for the entry into force of a United Nations convention against transnational organized crime and for protocols thereof, including protocols on the prevention of illegal migration by ground, air and sea, and relevant models for cooperation in that sphere.

The sides stressed the effective nature of interaction with Interpol, including access to its database on human trafficking, smuggling and passport control. Special attention was paid to compatible systems of reading new generations of documents as well as to preparation and issuing of biometric IDs and passports. I am confident that I will express the opinion shared by other participants that would did have a frank and honest dialogue.

I think that the past two days of deliberations and communication for each of us proved to be very productive and marked by the spirit of mutual understanding and partnership. And as a representative of the country which holds the presidency of the G8 I would like to stress that the main task we were trying to solve in Moscow during the forum was to make as concrete as possible our understandings. In this connection, it is heartening to state that we have made progress along the road of practical interaction among the G8 countries, in the first place on the issue of counterterrorist protection of the underground railways, aviation and railway transport as well as in the field of
international cooperation in combating incitement, support and perpetration of terrorist acts.

The ideas and proposals that we discussed, expressed and shared in communicating with each other over the past two days will be examined by the experts of the Rome-Lyon group and the results of their implementation will be considered by the interior ministers, justice ministers and public prosecutors of the G8 in the course of the upcoming meeting in Germany in 2007. I am sure that the implementation of the agreements reached during the Moscow meeting will give a new impetus to counterterrorist and counter-crime cooperation among the G8 countries. An agreed joint statement has been adopted on all the issues discussed.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that in my presentation I have expressed the common opinion and a common position of the participants in our forum. Dear colleagues, I would like to yield the floor to a representative of Canada, Mr. Day.

Day: Ladies and gentlemen, first I want to congratulate our Russian hosts for their leadership in this conference. You have heard the list of items which we have addressed, which we made progress on. We made progress because of the able leadership shown to us by our Russian hosts. I also want to thank them for the graciousness which has been shown to all of us not just here at the site but wherever we went we were treaty in such a way, with such generosity that we all want to return as soon as we can.

Ladies and gentlemen, the great endeavors in our time which can advance in a positive way human endeavors and the human condition, those same things can be used and are used by people in all societies who will use them in a way that are harmful and hurtful.

The Internet is a wonderful instrument to advance the human condition. But it is used by those who use it for harm.

Trade itself is a wonderful opportunity to share products, services and ideas around the world, but many would use trade in a way that will harm others. And so we have agreed in this conference and at this time to pursue the solutions to the challenges of those who want to bring harm to individuals and to countries. We have made progress, we will continue to make progress, and I am encouraged by the fact that we can make gains against the challenges we face. It will be difficult, but with vigilance and with goodwill we can do this. And that has been
demonstrated through this conference these last few days. I want once again to thank our Russian hosts for their able leadership in this endeavor.

Nurgaliyev: Thank you Canada, thank you Mr. Day. Lord Goldsmith has the floor.

Goldsmith: Thank you. I too congratulate the Russian presidency on a very successful conference. The organization has been excellent. And it has been extremely well chaired by you, Mr. Rashid Nurgaliyev. My thanks too to the work of the Ministry of Justice and Minister Yuri Chaika. We have enjoyed a very warm reception in Moscow, and thank you for the excellent hospitality. We also had a very useful visit to the All-Russia Advanced Training Institute where we saw impressive progress in the field of security and training of security of people.

The key message of this conference, I believe, has been our joint commitment to work together to fight terrorism.

And that remains a number one priority. People from every country around this table have suffered from terrorism. And the overall clear impression that I and my colleague Tony McNalty (sp.--FNS) have is that there is a clear commitment by all G8 countries to work together to fight terrorism. And our aim throughout this meeting has been to find practical measures to further their objective. Practical measures to deal with radicalization, to deal with mutual legal assistance, to deal with cyber crime at all of the areas that you mentioned.

As you said, Minister, the discussions have been honest and frank, but they have also been positive and constructive. We thank you for that and look forward to a continuation of this work by our experts and under the presidency of Germany next year.

Nurgaliyev: Thank you, Great Britain, thank you, Mr. Goldsmith. I am giving the floor to US Attorney General, Mr. Gonzalez.

Gonzalez: Thank you, Minister. Let me add my voice to that of my colleagues and take my turn in congratulating you for this wonderful conference and thanking you for the generous hospitality shown to all of us during this conference.

And not surprisingly we have spent a great deal of time during this conference talking about issues that one way or another relate to our fight against terrorism. Our countries may differ in many ways, but we all share a commitment to work together to fight against this threat. And the United States stands committed to work side by side, shoulder to shoulder with our friends and allies, moving forward. And again, Minister, I want to thank you for your generous hospitality. Thank you.

Nurgaliyev: Thank you, the United States of America and Mr. Gonzalez. I would like to turn the floor over now to German Interior Minister, Mr. Schauble.

Schauble: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. May I speak in German? Thank you for giving me the floor. Just like Canada and the US before me I'd like to thank you for this constructive dialogue and for the warm welcome in Moscow. We will continue the course started by Russia at this conference. We will do that in Germany, and we will do our utmost to continue developing this course. The development of peace and progress requires an improvement in our cooperation. And we do hope that we will only develop the activities that have been started in Moscow at this event.

Once again, congratulations and many thanks to our Russian hosts and presidency.

Nurgaliyev: Thank you, Germany and Mr. Schauble. Ladies and gentlemen, at this point the conference is over. We are passing the relay baton to Germany, and the ministers of the G8 will meet in Germany next year. Thank you.

With thanks to the G8 Centre, Toronto