Dushanbe, Tajikistan, June 2, 2023 – Tajikistan, the Netherlands, Romania, and the United States recently hosted the Snow Leopard Tabletop Exercise in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in collaboration with the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Tajikistan is a key U.S. partner in counterterrorism cooperation, working closely to safeguard our countries’ national security interests. The three-day multilateral activity from May 30 through June 1, 2023, identified and demonstrated effective regional cooperation mechanisms for investigating and prosecuting radiological/nuclear (R/N) crimes.
Department of State Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Kathryn Insley stated in her opening remarks, “People and materials are ever-more mobile in the global economy, making the need for strong cooperation and information sharing against R/N threats clearer/more important than ever before.”
Deterring, detecting, and stopping R/N terrorism is of the utmost importance to any nation, and exercises like Snow Leopard help to bring together experts from various disciplines and countries to share experiences and information, build relationships, and encourage the implementation of national legal frameworks. These exercises empower countries to improve their capabilities to deny and disrupt terrorist and other non-state actor acquisition of weapons of mass destruction materials, expertise, and equipment. The Snow Leopard exercise developed participant understanding of the relevance and applicability of international legal frameworks against acts of R/N terrorism, including the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT).
