[2][3] 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.

[5][6] 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.

[5][2] RATS was established in during a meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO Member States on June 7, 2002, in Saint Petersburg, though the organization did not become active until 2004.

[4] What China claims are counterterrorism efforts in Xinjiang are criticized by other RATS members, and much of the international community, as persecution of Muslim ethnic minorities.

Russia since has used this authority to designate government opposition politician Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) a terrorist entity with RATS.