MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) plays a major role in repelling new challenges and threats, including in fighting against illegal drug trafficking, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said on Monday.

Syromolotov is leading a Russian delegation to the current session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. On Monday, he took part in a conference dedicated to efforts against drugs and terrorism financing organized by the SCO and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on the sidelines of the Commission’s session.

He stressed the necessity of establishing an anti-drug segment within the SCO that would serve as a basis for an efficient mechanism of rebuffing global drug expansion, including from the territory of Afghanistan. "This task is especially topical in the light of inefficient actions of NATO contingents and structures in exterminating drug production in Afghanistan," the Russian foreign ministry said.

"The Russian representative provided detailed information about the system of training anti-drug personnel for Afghanistan and Central Asian states on the basis of relevant education establishments of the Russian interior ministry, and about further steps geared to develop this important anti-drug component," the ministry said. "Special attention was focused on the problem of preventing financing of terrorist activities through drug trafficking proceeds."