Speaking at the 25th meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Coordinating Council of Heads of the Competent Authorities Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking in Minsk, the CSTO Deputy Secretary-General Valery Semerikov noted on October 24 that the drug business is increasingly acquiring the features of network marketing.  

According to the CSTO Secretariat, the meeting was attended by interior ministry’s delegations from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan as well as the CSTO Secretariat.

The meeting participants reportedly summed up the intermediate results of cooperation, exchanged the necessary information, and developed new practical recommendations in the interests of cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking.   

“The current stage of development of the military-political situation and the world order as a whole, which we are experiencing today, is the most serious test of the strength of allied and fraternal relations between the states of the post-Soviet space,” the CSTO official said, according to Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA.  

Increase and popularity of synthetic drugs as well as expansion of illegal drug production in the CSTO member nations and use by drug dealers of modern information and communication technologies, and new payment instruments are alarming, Semerikov was quoted as saying.

The CSTO deputy secretary-general also noted that for several years now they have been developing a very important and complex target program on strengthening Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan.  

Meanwhile, BelTA reports that Belarusian Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Kubrakov, speaking at the meeting, in particular, noted, “Despite the difficult geopolitical situation, the unprecedented military, political and economic pressure on our countries, the drug threat has not lost its relevance.”

The Collective Security Treaty Organization now includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.