DUSHANBE, December 5, 2012, Asia-Plus — NATO and Russia have passed a milestone in 2012 with the training of over 2,500 counter-narcotics officers from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was quoted as saying by Silk Road Newsline.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen reportedly hailed the joint counter-narcotics effort of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) in Central Asia at a press conference in Brussels on December 4.
“In the past year, we have achieved a lot. We have passed a milestone with the training of over 2,500 counter-narcotics officers from Afghanistan, Central Asia and Pakistan,” Rasmussen, who is chairman of the NRC, said after a meeting of foreign ministers from NATO nations and Russia at NATO headquarters.
According to NATO, the NRC Counter-Narcotics Training Project is a joint endeavor of several countries of the NRC (Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States), as well as non-NRC nations Finland and Ukraine, plus the project’s beneficiary countries: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
Launched in 2006, the NRC Counter-Narcotics Training Project is conducted in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Its aim is to provide much needed training in the area of counter-narcotics in order to help combat the rising problem of drug trafficking in the Central Asian region and contribute to building sustainable regional capacity.
The internalization of criminal groups, new trends in drug trafficking, methods of concealment and new technologies used by criminals require cohesive efforts by law enforcement agencies in countries where drugs originate and the destination countries. Professional law enforcement personnel must be equipped with skills and expertise in different areas of drug enforcement in order to combat this, according to NATO.
Currently, more than 100 training courses have been conducted, with a total of 2,500 officers receiving training. The training continues to take place at four training sites in Russia, Turkey and the United States as well as in mobile training workshops throughout the Central Asian region.
“We will expand our counter-narcotics cooperation with dedicated programs for Afghan police women, training on the use of dogs in the fight against drugs, and more courses in more locations than ever before,” Rasmussen said.
