DUSHANBE, October 23, 2008, Asia-Plus — The Ministerial Conference “Border Management and Drug Control in Central Asia” that was held in Dushanbe on October 21-22 ended with the official delegations” agreement a practical and forward-looking Partnership Declaration.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Fakhriddin Jonmahmadov, the chief of staff of the Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA), said that in the declaration, the participants agreed on the importance of strengthening cross-border cooperation and developing and implementing national border management and national drug control strategies
The declaration, in particular, said that official delegations that singed it support all bilateral, regional and international initiatives on strengthening of the border management and drug control in central Asia, based on international partnership, including the EU Strategy for Central Asia and Regional Strategies of the UNODC on providing security on borders of Central Asia’s states with Afghanistan as well as events held within the OSCE, CSTO, CIS and SCO.
“Only the Uzbek delegation did not sign the document,” said Jonmahmadov, “They said they received the draft declaration just on the eve of the conference, and because of shortage of time they did not participate in discussion of it.”
We will recall that enhancing border management and drug control in Central Asia were the focus of a two-day high-level conference in Dushanbe.
The event was hosted by the Government of Tajikistan and co-organized by the European Union/European Commission, Finland, the French Presidency of the European Union, Germany, the OSCE, the United Nations Development Program, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The Central Asian countries and participating international delegations presented their national and regional priorities. The participants from international organizations and individual countries sent strong messages of support to the countries of the region regarding strengthening of border management, as a prerequisite for successful fight against drug trafficking.
