On 15 March, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), jointly with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), organized a high-level online event “Strengthening anti-drug cooperation in the SCO space, supporting global drug control” on the margins of the 65th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).
Ms. Ghada Waly, UNODC Executive Director, Mr. Zhang Ming, the Secretary-General of the SCO, and other representatives of the SCO Member States from Central Asia, India, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and China spoke at the event.
Ms. Ghada Waly, in her welcome speech, emphasized the importance of further strengthening global efforts towards addressing illicit drug trafficking in the SCO space. She noted that it is crucial to conduct targeted and effective monitoring of Afghanistan as specified in the new UNODC Programme for Central Asia 2022-2025 to reach regional and interregional stability, security and sustainable development.
“This side event provides an important opportunity to assess cooperation of SCO and UNODC in line with the Memorandum of Understanding between the organizations and review the strategic directions and priorities in shared mandated areas. In this regard, I am pleased that within the framework of CND, joint high-level side events have been organized annually since 2017,” said Ms. Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia, who moderated the event.
Mr. Zhang Ming noted that since 2017, SCO and UNODC organized five side events on the margins of the CND sessions aimed to reaffirm commitments to the international drug control system based on the principle of common and shared responsibility. He also highlighted the tangible results of cooperation with UNODC and other international counterparts in the fight against illicit narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors.
The SCO Member States outlined the increasing threats of drug trafficking in Central Asian and Southeast Asian countries, including new forms of drugs trade through the DarkNet, the illicit use of cryptocurrencies, modernization of chemical formulas of drugs, and others. The parties specified countering the financing of terrorism, separatism, extremism through drug trafficking via consistent work and coordinated efforts as the SCO's main priorities.
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