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When we met in June of last year, we pledged to cooperate in addressing terrorism, which has emerged as one of the greatest threats to global peace and security in the 21st century. Subsequent events, including the tragic bombing at Domodedovo Airport in January and the attempt to put bombs aboard cargo planes bound for the United States in October, underscore how important it is to strengthen our joint efforts in the struggle against this threat to the security and well-being of citizens in both our countries.
We have agreed to focus on all aspects of this challenge through cooperative actions of law enforcement, transportation security, intelligence sharing, combating terrorism finance, counterterrorism technology, and within the framework of multilateral fora such as the United Nations, Group of Eight, the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, and the soon-to-be established Global Counterterrorism Forum. Today, we are pleased to note several additional steps we are taking to strengthen our bilateral partnership.
Protection of the traveling public remains a key focus of our efforts. We intend to enhance our cooperation by putting in place measures to strengthen security in airports serving our two countries and enhance cooperation on other modes of transportation. We remain committed to constructively exploring additional steps we could take, both bilaterally and in multilateral fora. In particular, we intend to discuss how we can improve in-air security through the deployment of law enforcement personnel on select flights, the state-of-the-art in explosives detection measures, and how we can work together in multilateral organizations to improve global supply chain security.
We reaffirm our common view of the threat to global security posed by al Qa’ida and advocate continued cooperation to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat this terrorist organization.
There can be no justification for terrorist activities, and no terrorist should feel safe from international efforts to bring them to justice. In this regard, the Russian Federation welcomed the decisions of the United States to separately designate Doku Umarov and his group Caucasus Emirates as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224, and to support Umarov’s inclusion in the UN’s Consolidated List pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1267. The United States is also announcing today that it has included Doku Umarov in its “Rewards for Justice” program, offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to the location of this key terrorist leader, who has claimed responsibility, among other things, for organizing the Moscow subway bombing and the attack on rail traffic between St. Petersburg and Moscow in 2010, and the Domodedovo airport bombing this year.
We are pleased with the cooperation we have established to date in this area, but remain cognizant of the need to deepen further means to promote international security, counter violent extremism, repel terrorist threats, protect the lives and rights of citizens, and bring terrorists to justice.