Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure

The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) is a permanent organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) tasked with coordinating counterterrorism efforts across member countries and advancing cooperation on SCO initiatives to mitigate the "Three Evils" – terrorism, separatism and religious extremism. The organization is meant to lay the groundwork for a future enforcement capability within the SCO, which aspires to develop its own transnational police and military forces.

Member countries have more recently incorporated narcoterrorism and drug smuggling as focus areas for RATS, as narcotics have become a major source of funding for anti-government activities within member states. The organization also maintains a database of individuals and organizations aiding organizations designated as terrorists, separatists or extremists by member states.

RATS has been described by researchers at the United States Army War College as "SCO’s most important and best-functioning component structure to date."

The director of the RATS Executive Committee is appointed by the SCO Council of Heads of State to a three-year term after which the role is traditionally transferred to the representative of another member state, rotating by order of accession. The current director is Ruslan Mirzayev of Uzbekistan, who assumed office on 1 January 2022.

RATS was headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, until 2022, when the organisation voted to move its headquarters to Moscow, Russia. RATS' official languages are Chinese, Russian and English.