"The neighboring countries ought to join hands with the Afghan government and international forces present in that country and, in close team efforts, establish and fortify drug safety belts along the Afghan frontiers," he said to a session of the Central Asian Memorandum organization to repulse the drug danger.
To stop drug smuggling from Afghanistan and contraband of heroin manufacture facilities into it shall be primary goals of those steps. "That will be not a sanitary cordon but a cooperative arrangement that will not work unless it has all the three components it needs-the Afghan government, international presence, and the neighboring countries," stressed Mr. Lavrov.
Top-priority measures are to enhance those countries' potential to fight smuggling in frontier areas, pinpoint the most vulnerable frontier stretches, track down drug routes, and detect and neutralize the entire chain of transnational gangs who supply and sell Afghan-made drugs, added the minister.
"What we need is teamwork as smooth as it can be. We are to exchange intelligence and other related information both in and outside Afghanistan. All that demands the closest-possible alliance of law enforcement agencies."
Afghanistan's own efforts will be of vital importance in setting up safety belts. The global community must see what it can do for practical assistance to Afghanistan as it fights the drug danger and implements ambitious alternative development projects. These projects encourage farmers to shift to growing plants that do not contain narcotic substances, the Foreign Minister went on.
Russia is willing to train Afghan anti-drug personnel on the basis of its own agencies, educational establishments and anti-drug centers, he reassured.
Afghan drug production has been building up pace for several years now much faster than the world is hitting back. As far as Mr. Lavrov knows, this year alone sent drug output 64 per cent up. Overall profits from the drug turnover in countries bordering on Afghanistan make 2.8 billion US dollars.
"Afghan authorities are determined for a resolute rebuff to drug business, said President Hamid Karzai. We greet his statement, and we expect Afghan authorities themselves to set up efficient bodies that would repulse the drug danger," pointed out the minister.
As for Russian-US anti-drug partnership, it is to make progress clean of breaks and innuendoes. "Efforts against Afghan drug trafficking are getting ever greater prominence in the Russia-U.S. dialogue. We want to see this dialogue dynamically developing without whatever pauses, understatements or timeserving. The theme of the dialogue is extremely serious. It demands the utmost honesty, frankness and equality," said the Foreign Minister.
He also highlighted progressing Russian anti-drug teamwork with European Union countries. "We are starting to implement many ambitious joint projects in Central Asia," added Sergei Lavrov.
