SCO pledges to shield Eurasia from drug menace

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The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has the potential and capability to shield Eurasia from drug trafficking and related crimes, SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov has asserted ahead of the organization’s annual summit to be held in China’s eastern coastal city of Qingdao this June.

"The SCO prioritizes efforts to counter the growing drug threat. We see our activities in this area as building a safe and stable future in the region between the Pacific Ocean and the Baltic Sea and between the Indian Ocean and the Arctic," Alimov said addressing the 61st session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in the Austrian capital of Vienna last week.

Rashid Alimov, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), addresses the plenary meeting of the 61st session of the UN Commission on Narcotics Drugs in Vienna, Austria, on March 12, 2018. /Photo via SCO

Drug control, along with separatism, terrorism, extremism and cybersecurity, has been among the top security challenges on the agenda of the SCO since its formation in 2001 in Shanghai, with six members including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

During last year’s summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, the SCO expanded its membership to a total of eight states with the inclusion of India and Pakistan. Neighboring Afghanistan – the world’s largest producer of illicit opium – is also an SCO observer state since 2012.

At the Astana Declaration of June 9, 2017, the SCO states formalized the intention to step up coordinated efforts in dealing with common challenges and security threats, including the fight against illegal drug trafficking.

Cooperation among SCO member states over the years has led to synchronizing efforts towards drafting anti-drug laws and enforcement measures towards fighting illegal drug trafficking and drug-related crimes. Long-term strategies and policies to reduce drug demand in the SCO region will be among the topics to be deliberated at the Qingdao summit.

"A three-tier intra-SCO mechanism for cooperation between member state anti-drug agencies has been in place for the past six years. This mechanism allows the countries to cooperate at the expert and executive levels and to address a wide range of practical tasks,” Alimov elucidated.

This includes joint anti-drug events to stabilize the drug situation in the SCO region, to stop illegal drug trafficking, to thwart the activities of transnational crime rings and to expose various channels for the delivery of precursors.

International delegates attend the plenary meeting of the 61st session of the UN Commission on Narcotics Drugs in Vienna, Austria, on March 12, 2018. /Photo via SCO

"The SCO unites countries with the potential and capability to shield Eurasia from drug aggression," Alimov stressed, boosting his claims with figures of confiscated illegal narcotics over the last six years.

From 2011 through the first half of 2017, SCO member state law enforcement agencies confiscated 1,500 tonnes of hashish, about 300 tonnes of opium, over 1,400 tonnes of marijuana and 160 tonnes of heroin.

"This is almost 40 percent of the total amount of heroin and marijuana confiscated all over Eurasia. But instead of allowing us to relax, these achievements motivate us all the more," Alimov said.

The SCO Secretary-General warned about the global drug threat which in 2015, according to him, saw nearly five percent of the world’s adult population using drugs at least once and about 0.6 percent of the adults being drug dependent

“Illegal drug trafficking is adapting to new conditions, becoming more flexible, breeding crime and violence and trying to weaken vital state institutions. The involvement of children and teenagers in cultivating, selling and using drugs is a serious cause for concern," he said.

Alimov noted that SCO member state antidrug agencies were monitoring these challenges all the time, and that the SCO member states were determined to tirelessly and uncompromisingly combat this evil.

UN Under-Secretary-General Yury Fedotov, who is also the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), greets SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov at the SCO information stand on antidrug cooperation at the UN Office in Vienna, Austria, on March 12. /Photo via SCO

On the sidelines of the CND session in Vienna, a special event highlighting the UN and SCO’s joint fight against narcotics drugs was also held.

Praising the SCO's cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Alimov said: "The regularity and frequency of high-level meetings allow us to constantly stay on top of anti-drug cooperation at the global and regional levels, and to discuss the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the SCO Secretariat and the UNODC in real time."

The SCO and UNODC signed an MoU in June 2011 to coordinate their “joint specialist, analytical and information work, and are conducting joint activities aimed at promoting cooperation in combating drug trafficking,” according to an SCO statement.

Yury Fedotov, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNODC Executive Director, hoped that the cooperation will continue with the implementation of the recommendations of the UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem.

"We can see the synergy and correspondence of our mandates and are ready to continue the promotion of cooperation with the SCO in supporting the SCO member states in fighting drugs and cross-border organized crime based on the integrated three-tier approach: national, regional and interregional," Fedotov said.

The SCO also put out an information stand on antidrug cooperation at the UN Office in Vienna during the CND session that was held from March 12 to 16, 2018.

[Representative cover photo via VCG]

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