DUSHANBE, October 21, 2008, Asia-plus — A two-day ministerial conference on “Border Management and Drug Control in Central Asia” is opening in Dushanbe today.
According to the Tajik MFA information department, President Emomali Rahmon is expected to address the conference, which is staged by the Drug Control Agency at the President of Tajikistan, the OSCE, the European Union (EU), and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The conference members include delegations of countries of the European Union, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Russia, the United States and Japan.
The EU Special Representative for Central Asia Pierre Morel, Counselor of Austria’s Interior Minister for International Affairs Hunter Zablattnig, Chief Technical Advisor to BOMCA/CADAP for Tajikistan Richard Lewington, as well as Deputy Director of Operations of the UNODC Bernard Frahi, UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia James Callahan and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) Miroslav Jenca have also been invited to attend the conference.
Today, representatives of organizations helping Central Asia”s states strengthen border management, are presenting their activities.
Tomorrow, ministers responsible in charge of border management will meet. Heads of five Central Asia’s states and Afghanistan will present their national border management strategies, the Tajik MFA said.
An agreement on organization and holding of this conference in Dushanbe was reached during a visit of State Secretary of Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hernot Erler to Tajikistan in mid-April this year.
We will recall that issues related to strengthening border management in Central Asia were discussed in Astana, Kazakhstan on September 22-23. The current BOMCA activities were presented at the Astana meeting. In their presentations, the representatives of the five Central Asian countries outlined their national border management strategies, on-going reform efforts, priorities, their views of Integrated Border Management in the Central Asian context. Mr. Florjan Seitz of the German Federal Foreign Ministry opened the second day of the conference by a presentation on the Ministerial Conference on “Border Management and Drug Control in Central Asia” in Dushanbe.
