The Foreign Ministries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries-China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan-must coordinate their efforts. That is more important now than ever.
A foreign-ministerial cooperation protocol is being drafted for an upcoming Tashkent summit. The document must take into account cooperation trends in Asian areas bordering on the Shanghai Six. The ASEAN with its regional security forum are getting ever more dynamic. The APEC is extending its agenda. New entities are emerging-the ASEAN + 3, the Conference for Partnership and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, and the East Asian Three-China, South Korea and Japan. The Asia-Europe forum of 26 countries deserves ever greater attention.
Mr. Lavrov highlighted Afghan problems. It takes globally supported teamwork under the UN aegis to settle them. In this context, Russia enthusiastically approves the final declaration of the Berlin international conference on post-conflict Afghan rehabilitation. The April 2 conference brought another noteworthy document-an understanding Afghanistan and its neighbour countries signed on efforts against drug trafficking.
The Afghan drug danger demands smooth strategies of international combat, including safety belts round Afghanistan all along its frontiers, and the Shanghai Six can do much for the cause, said the minister.
