Eight Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries and the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) held a joint drill on countering cyber-terrorism in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province on December 12.

Attended by delegates from the SCO members and the RATS executive committee, the drill was based on a scenario in which an international terrorist group posted information of infiltrating into SCO countries, spreading terrorism through cyberspace and planning terrorist attacks.

During the drill, the SCO members tested their capacity in uncovering and tackling cyber-terrorism, and further promoted cooperation in fighting against regional terrorist organizations with the coordination of RATS, said Dzhumakhon Giyosov, director of the executive committee of RATS, also chief commander of the drill.

RATS has played an important role for the SCO members to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism during the past 15 years since its founding, and China pledged to further enhance cooperation with the SCO members to improve law enforcement and security, said Liu Yuejin, a senior anti-terrorism official at China's Ministry of Public Security.

The SCO organized two joint drills against cyber-terrorism in 2015 and 2017, respectively.