Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran have signed a joint statement at the end of Regional Triangular Co-operation meeting here on 'Transnational Organisation Crime', says an official press release.
The salient features, it said, of the statement are that Afghanistan border regions between Iran and Pakistan are under attack from criminal groups that are smuggling precursor chemicals into Afghanistan and trafficking drugs out of the country. This creates regional instability and poses a serious health risk.
This trans-national threat requires a co-operative solution, it said. United in their desire to counter-act this common threat along their common borders, public security and counter narcotic ministers and senior officials from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan met in Vienna with the facilitation of the United Nation Office on Drugs ad Crime (UNODC) to discuss existing threats, domestic counter narcotic strategies, and ways of improving bilateral and regional co-operation.
Their very agreement to meet sends a strong political signal on their desire to work together. "They stressed the wish to focus not only on trafficking, but on all aspects of the drugs economy; stopping the diversion and smuggling of precursor chemicals; locating and destroying drug labs; tackling corruption which facilities the drug business; and halting the laundering of drug money".
Participants made a strong commitment to work towards realisation of more physical barriers to block trafficking routes, increased law enforcement capacity and assets, more joint operations, better communication, and increased intelligence sharing, for example on trafficking routes, traffickers and suspicious shipments.
States where opiates are consumed should assume their share of responsibility for creating the pull factor that is fuelling the opium trade. More attention should be devoted to drug prevention and treatment to save humanity from the misery ad instability created by drug abuse.
States where precursor chemicals are produced should tighten up their procedures to prevent diversion. Senior representatives of the three countries taking part in the Triangular Meeting agreed on the need for action, particularly in the most vulnerable border regions.
They committed themselves to implement an Action Plan comprised of a range of projects designed to strengthen national, bilateral and trilateral border management and security. UNODC was asked to facilitate the implementation of technical assistance, serve as the Secretariat of the initiate, and mobilise financial support.
In order to improve confidence, security, and co-operation in relation to border management in the drug control, senior delegates from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan agreed to hold policy-level co-ordination meetings at least every six months and technical-level exchange every three months. This should enable more regular and operational contacts that can stem the flow of drug trafficking from Afghanistan, the press release further stated.