NATO is not sufficiently cooperating with Russia in tackling the Afghan drug threat, the head of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) said on Saturday.
"The fight against drugs in Afghanistan and [drug] traffic is not being carried out the way the situation demands, likewise there is no planned and coordinated work against the Taliban movement," Nilolai Bordyuzha said during a round-table conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on collective security in Central Asia.
"We (CSTO leadership) have repeatedly told NATO: let's tackle this problem together because this is not a regional but a global threat," he complained, saying that NATO has so far been reluctant to do so.
Bordyuzha said the sooner NATO starts full cooperation with Russia, "the sooner ... we will set up an effective scheme to combat Afghan drug trafficking."
The CSTO also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Russia's security strategy until 2020 envisions the CSTO as "a key mechanism to counter regional military challenges and threats."
Bordyuzha said that while the lack of Russia-NATO cooperation has also created risks for Afghanistan's neighbors in Central Asia as the Taliban may mover further north, the CSTO would be ready for "such a course of events," as the CSTO could handle a military conflict.
Russia's drug control chief Viktor Ivanov said last week that Russia would boost its drug control mission staff in Afghanistan as "the drug situation in Russia is rather difficult, and needs fast decisions, both in Russia and within the framework of international cooperation."
Afghan drug production increased dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001, and Russia has been one of the most affected countries, with heroin consumption rising steeply. An estimated 90% of heroin consumed in Russia is trafficked from Afghanistan via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
DUSHANBE, March 27 (RIA Novosti)
