Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has called on member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to step up measures against terrorism.
Addressing a meeting of CIS security officials in Astana on November 5, Nazarbaev said new joint efforts are needed to tackle "new challenges imposed by activities of terrorist organizations."
Nazarbaev's statement comes a day after he signed into law a bill tightening punishment for terrorist activities in his country.
On November 3, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev vowed to implement "the strictest measures against extremist religious communities" in Kyrgyzstan, calling terrorist and extremist organizations a "cancer."
Authorities of Russia, Central Asia, and Caucasus countries say hundreds of their citizens have joined Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria.