RF, Tajikistan sign agrmnt on combating illegal drug trafficking.

3/12 Tass 148

DUSHANBE, December 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Head of the Tajik Drug Control
Agency (DCA) Rustam Nazarov considers the intergovernmental agreement on
cooperation in opposing the spread of drugs, which was signed here on
Thursday, to be an important step in coordinating efforts of the power
wielding agencies of Russia and Tajikistan in this important direction.

He
said this in a statement for the press while signing the document on
behalf of the government. Head of the Russian diplomatic mission in
Tajikistan Yuri Popov put his signature to the document on behalf of the
Russian government.
The DCA head recalled that the necessity of adopting such a serious
legal document was recorded in a joint statement of the Russian and Tajik
presidents on the results of the state visit of Emomali Rakhmon to Moscow
in October 2009.
The document envisages "intensification of cooperation in the search
sphere, organization of joint events to reveal and prosecute drug
smugglers, exchange operational information and train cadres at Russian
institutes of higher education."
According to Nazarov, over the last years, more than 50 DCA operatives
have undergone training at the All-Russia institute of improvement of
qualification of the Russian Interior Ministry's officers.
"The current agreement will make it possible to raise and strengthen
the role of our countries as states being in the forefront of opposition
to such threats of the present as international terrorism and organized
drug crime," Rustam Nazarov said.
As of the beginning of the year, all power wielding agencies of
Tajikistan have seized over four tons of drugs, and the DCA share in this
amount is almost one fourth.
-0-ast