Digital technologies, artificial intelligence and global communication tools are profoundly changing the very nature of transnational threats, opening broad opportunities for progress while creating fundamentally new vulnerabilities, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan said in his address to participants in the first SCO Plus expert dialogue on security in Samarkand today.

“The current situation in the world is marked by rising geopolitical tension, deepening contradictions and the escalation of armed conflicts. Issues of information security, protection of critical infrastructure and the resilience of states to new forms of destructive influence are becoming ever more pressing,” the chief of state said.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that cyberspace has become a key arena of confrontation, where, alongside traditional methods, network attacks, manipulation of public opinion and disinformation are increasingly used,” the president said.

He voiced concern about terrorist organizations’ use of the digital environment. “Internet platforms have become a tool for spreading radical ideology, recruiting new followers, raising funds and forming extremist groups that recognize no state borders,” he said.

Young people remain the most vulnerable group. “Destructive forces deliberately target the minds of young people, draw them into their communities, exploit social tensions and spread ideas of intolerance,” Mirziyoyev said.

Such processes, he said, risk undermining interethnic and interreligious harmony and destabilizing the social and political situation. “That is why it is vitally important not only to respond quickly to incidents as they arise, but also to act preemptively: to identify risks, exchange information, strengthen national capacity and develop coordinated approaches to security.”

“No state can fully counter threats that know no borders on its own. This objectively increases the need for international cooperation, mutual trust and practical mechanisms for working together,” the head of state said.

Addressing chiefs and representatives of the security services of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states, observers and dialogue partners, he said: “The SCO’s ability to respond to new challenges in good time, and to take an effective part in building a more stable world, depends in large part on the coordinated work of the security services.”

Over its 25 years, the SCO “has become an effective platform for developing joint approaches to international and regional security,” Mirziyoyev said. As a co-founder of the SCO, Uzbekistan attaches particular importance to “strengthening its role and expanding its activities as a unique multilateral platform uniting member states in order to preserve stability and inclusive development,” the president said.