Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our meeting today follows on the high level special event of the UN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in New York in November with the UN Secretary-General, and further highlights the importance of global and regional efforts to address security challenges.
The strong partnership between UNODC and the SCO is rooted in our MoU, signed in 2011.
Based on the MoU, we are working together across a range of areas related to global health, safety and security, in particular drug trafficking, drug use, human trafficking and other forms of organized crime, and terrorism.
This partnership is of even greater significance today, in view of the growing threats of terrorism and violent extremism, as well as continued challenges stemming from opiate cultivation, production and trafficking from Afghanistan.
It is in this context that UNODC is further strengthening its work with the SCO's counterterrorism structure in Tashkent to address terrorist threats, and to enhance international cooperation and criminal justice responses to violent extremism.
UNODC is contributing to the objectives of the SCO through its "One UNODC Concerted Approach for Europe, West and Central Asia", which provides support to countries in Europe, West and Central Asia to advance interconnected, integrated and balanced responses.
This support includes activities under the UNODC Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries as well as the Programme for Central Asia, among others.
Other important initiatives implemented within these programmes include the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre, or CARICC; the AKT Initiative of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan; and the Triangular Initiative of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, including its Joint Planning Cell.
Such a broad-based approach is being supported by the Networking the Networks initiative, which is building bridges between regional law enforcement bodies, as well as regional and sub-regional organizations, along major opiate trafficking routes.
In this context, UNODC has also begun setting up an anti-money laundering network and centre of expertise in the wider region to further boost efforts to counter money laundering and financing of terrorism at the national, regional and inter-regional levels.
Our cooperation will also contribute to the Paris Pact Initiative recommendations within Vienna Declaration Pillars I and II, on Regional Cooperation and Illicit Financial Flows, respectively.
These initiatives are further informed and supported by the outcome document of the 2016 UNGASS on the world drug problem, which reinforced the comprehensive understanding and collective action required to address shared challenges.
I would also like to emphasize the momentum achieved at the Teheran International Conference on Cooperation against Illicit Drugs and related Organized Crime, which UNODC organized jointly with the Government of Iran just two weeks ago.
The discussion, informed by the findings of a UNODC study entitled "Drug Money: the illicit proceeds of opiates trafficked on the Balkan route", was well-received by participating delegates, notably from Europe, West and Central Asia, as well as from international and regional organizations, including SCO.
The conference recognized that Afghanistan and transit countries in the region continue to face multifaceted challenges, and reaffirmed the continuing need for cooperation and support, including the provision of technical assistance to enhance States' capacities to effectively address and counter the drug problem.
We need to continue addressing the challenges of illicit drugs as a common and shared responsibility, one that requires effective and increased international and regional cooperation, with a focus on integrated, multidisciplinary, mutually reinforcing and balanced approaches.
Allow me to conclude by thanking the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for co-hosting this high-level side event, and for its contribution to the work of the 60th Session of the CND.
I look forward to deepening our partnership, to promote peace and security for everyone in the region.
Thank you.