MOSCOW, February 15 (Itar-Tass) — The Collective Security Treaty Organisation strongly backs the United Nation’s opinion, which states that drug trafficking is a key problem of world security, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha will say at the Third Paris Pact Ministerial Conference on Drugs from Afghanistan, opening in Vienna on February 16.
The session will discuss “international cooperation in the struggle against Afghan drug trafficking via the territories of Iran, Pakistan, Central Asia, Russia, Turkey and Balkans,” CSTO press-secretary Vladimir Zainetdinov told Itar-Tass.
According to Zainetdinov, on the eve of the departure to the Austrian capital Bordyuzha said, “taking into account the threat from Afghan drug traffic the leaders of the CSTO countries have adopted a statement and asked the U.N. Security Council to declare drug production in Afghanistan as a threat to world peace and security."
Bordyuzha believes, “Afghan drug trafficking inflicts gigantic damage on the world community and the drug business ruins the economy, stimulates general crime and corruption and is a favorable environment for sponsoring terrorist and extremist structures and transnational organized crime.”
According to Bordyuzha, “bearing in mind the seriousness of the problem” the intensification of anti-drug struggle is under the constant control of the CSTO, which pays special attention to the “development and fulfillment of collective organizational, legal and practical measures.”
The international anti-drug operation Kanal, which has been afoot under the CSTO aegis since 2003, may be a good example of such measures. Security agencies from more than 20 countries, including the US and the European Union, take part in the operation.