The leaders agreed to ''create a joint anti-terrorist center'' in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. All leaders including China's President Jiang Zemin backed Russia's crackdown in Chechnya and condemned the terrorist incidents and bombing campaigns by Islamic militants that have taken place in Central Asia over the past 12 months. China's limited policy thrust over the past few years has been to persuade Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan not to give sanctuary or support to Uyghur militants. China is now looking further afield, drumming up similar pledges from Tajikistan and warning the Taliban. Uyghur militants from Xinjiang, China are increasingly using Afghanistan as a sanctuary, a supply base for training and weapons, and a means to fund their movement back home through the lucrative opium trade.
Heroin addiction is now a major social problem in Xinjiang.
Although the Taliban are not directly recruiting Uyghurs into their forces, Uyghur militants have enlisted with and get support from the foreign Islamic units fighting for the Taliban. These units include the 800 man Arab brigade led by Osama Bin Laden, units of Pakistani student militants, and the 2,000 man force of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan led by Juma Namangani now based in northern Afghanistan. China with its long-standing communist policies towards ethnic minorities and religion, is primarily concerned with Uyghur Islamism and separatism, but wants to avoid a confrontation with the wider Muslim world. Significantly Jiang Zemin warned that the use of military force in Afghanistan ''is not a solution'', thereby rebutting Russia's June threat to bomb Taliban camps northern Afghanistan. Jiang Zemin stressed that the United Nations must be given full support to persuade the Afghan factions to form a coalition government.