Concerted Efforts Needed by BIMSTEC Countries to Fight Drug Trafficking

The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri G. Kishan Reddy presided over the Valedictory session of the ‘Conference on Combating Drug Trafficking’ for BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Partner Nations, in New Delhi.

Addressing the Valedictory Session Shri G. Kishan Reddy said that the menace of Drug trafficking can be controlled only by the concerted efforts of the affected nations by sharing the experiences and information. He said that this multi-dimensional menace can be tackled by comprehensive attack and strategy with a joint and coordinated approach.  He expressed hope that over the past two days this conference has discussed many important facts and issues in detail while focusing the emerging challenges.

The Minister said that the Drug trafficking menace is common to all the nations of the world as it has the capacity to destabilize the economy and its impact is equally visible at the level of single individual destroying families and destructing the social fabric.

Talking about the steps taken by Government of India in combating the drug trafficking Shri G. Kishan Reddy said that the Government has laid down a well thought out strategy to increase coordination among the agencies of the Centre as well as States and the Home Ministry has established a joint coordination committee to increase surveillance over drug trafficking. He said that we are committed to combating Drug trafficking through greater regional cooperation.

He said that the relation between BIMSTEC countries are much beyond the diplomatic relations as we have centuries-old deep cultural and traditional ties however we all face similar maritime security threats. The issues of terrorism and drug trafficking have increased manifold through the maritime route and this makes the coordination among this nation all the important.

The Secretary MSJ&E , Shri R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary East  BIMSTEC, Smt. Vijay Thakur Singh,  D G Narcotics Control Bureau, Shri Rakesh Asthana and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.