Full coverage: President Xi Visits 3 Nations, Attends SCO Summit

Anti-terrorism has been one of the top priorities for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Ahead of the forthcoming SCO Summit, our correspondent Han Peng visited the organization’s anti-terrorism headquarters and spoke with its director, Yevgeniy Sysoyev. 

The director said the Islamic State has become a leading threat to all member states. And he also praised China's efforts to fight terrorism in partnership with Central Asian countries.

From the outside, the SCO’s anti-terrorism agency looks modest and unimposing. But inside this top secret structure, the organization directs some of Asia’s most powerful anti-terrorism efforts.

Russian security official Yevgeniy Sysoyev is the current rotating president. He says ISIL is the most urgent threat to member states.

In 2014, authorities in China’s western region of Xinjiang said some residents crossed the border to join ISIL. By the end of 2015, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization identified more than 1,200 people joining ISIL from member states. As a result, Beijing not only beefed up security inside Xinjiang, but reached out to Central Asia, a move praised by the SCO.

The SCO says in 2015 its anti-terror team killed 150 terrorists and arrested more than a thousand people. Thousands of weapons and explosives were also confiscated by the team.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded with the purpose of fighting terrorism. But now it is trying to expand its military and security focus to include economic and strategic cooperation.