The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) is a permanent institution and one of the two main organs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), alongside the Secretariat in Beijing. It was established to coordinate counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and intelligence gathering efforts among SCO member states. The legal foundation for RATS was laid by the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism signed on June 15, 2001, and the Agreement on the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure signed at the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting in St. Petersburg on June 7, 2002. RATS became operational in 2004.
The structure was created to mitigate the "Three Evils" of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism across the Eurasian region, which member states recognized as a cross-border security challenge. Its core mechanism is coordination and information sharing, rather than the deployment of force. RATS maintains a unified database on individuals, organizations, and their financing designated as terrorist, separatist, or extremist by member states. It also facilitates joint counter-terrorism exercises, assists in the search for wanted persons, and analyzes shared intelligence. The structure is governed by a Council of heads of competent national agencies, with day-to-day work managed by an Executive Committee led by a Director appointed for a three-year term.
RATS is intrinsically connected to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which India joined as a full member in 2017. The SCO Charter, adopted in June 2002, guides RATS' activities. A recent change occurred in 2022, when the organization voted to move its headquarters from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where it had been since its inception, to Moscow, Russia. Furthermore, member countries have recently expanded the focus areas to include narcoterrorism and drug smuggling as these activities fund anti-government operations.