The security reality in the region and beyond has changed significantly, with organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism increasingly converging and functioning as a single, hybrid threat, Macedonian Minister of Interior PancheToshkovski told Friday’s Aqaba Process ministerial meeting in Athens, focused on countering organized crime and terrorism in the Balkans.
“We can no longer treat crime and terrorism as separate phenomena. They are part of the same mechanism that relies on common channels, finances and logistics and requires a coordinated, common response from all of us,” Minister Toshkovski pointed out.
The country’s interior minister stresses that such threats are transnational and directly link the security of states, emphasizing that it is necessary to strengthen regional and international cooperation, information exchange, and coordination between security and intelligence services.
