Russia urges more efforts to upset terrorism-drug trafficking links - Lavrov

VIENNA, March 14. /TASS/. Greater efforts to upset links between terrorism and drug trafficking will deal a blow on the financial base of terrorist groups, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting of the ministerial segment of the 62nd session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. "Resistance to the drug threat is an important component of measures to maintain global security, including its regional dimensions. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is making a worthy contribution to this. At the Qingdao summit last June it adopted an antidrug strategy and an action plan to implement it," he said. "Upsetting the link between terrorism and drug trafficking, thus weakening the terrorist groups’ financial base is among the highest priorities." Lavrov recalled that Russia was working on a number of anti-drug instruction programs. "In cooperation with Japan and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime we push ahead with a project to train personnel for the corresponding services of Afghanistan, Central Asian countries and Pakistan and are creating a dog training center in Kabul," he said. Also, Moscow reaffirmed commitment to the Paris Pact Initiative - an important mechanism to curb the flow of drugs from Afghanistan," Lavrov said. "It is nakedly clear that efforts at the international level should be mated with corresponding national steps," Lavrov said. "Russia has started working on an Anti-Drug State Policy Strategy extending till 2030, which is called to provide an effective response to the new challenges in this field." The Paris Pact was signed in 2003. This document incorporates the fundamental principles of international cooperation in the struggle against drug trafficking from Afghanistan via Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, the Balkan countries and Central Asia. Read more