On 3 March, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov had a meeting with Ms Ghada Fathi Waly, the new Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Vladimir Norov congratulated Ms Ghada Fathi Waly on her appointment to this high-ranking position and wished her every success in her work. He expressed hope that Ms Waly would mostly aim to expand constructive UNODC-SCO cooperation and focus on experience exchanges regarding the fight against illicit drug trafficking, transnational organised crime and the laundering of criminal incomes, as well as assistance in coping with these challenges facing both organisations.
They exchanged views on the work that had been carried out in 2019. Last year, both organisations stepped up their collaboration, including that under the Paris Pact initiative. The parties discussed the practical implementation of the 2011 SCO-UNODC memorandum of understanding, including through the approval of the relevant action plan. The heads of both organisations also discussed the possibility of launching cooperation with other international and regional associations in order to fight illicit drug trafficking that affects the entire Eurasian region.
The SCO Secretary-General called for expanding the agenda of coordinated UNODC-SCO activities by including matters of international information security, crime prevention and criminal justice. According to Vladimir Norov, it is necessary to more actively draft joint international programmes, conduct science-practical conferences and seminars, analyse and predict the situation when it comes to the development of regional crime, exchange methodological material, train and retrain specialists and help to implement projects for combating transnational organised crime.
In turn, Ms Waly, praised the 2 March joint high-level event titled SCO and UNODC in the Fight against the Illicit Drug Threat: Countering Drug Trafficking via Darknet and reaffirmed the UNODC's readiness to continue this practice.
The parties agreed to step up their joint work in preset areas and to maintain high-level collaboration, attained over a period of the past few years.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was established in 1997 and has its headquarters in Vienna. The UNODC aims to coordinate the fight against illegal drug and weapons trafficking, organised crime, human trafficking and international terrorism.
On 14 June 2011, a memorandum of understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the UNODC was signed in Astana. The parties have launched joint expert-analytical and information work, and they also hold events aiming to expand anti-drug cooperation between both organisations.