The 13th Senior Officials Meeting of the Triangular Initiative on drug control was held in Islamabad on Tuesday, as per a per release of Pakistan’s Ministry of Narcotics Control.
The ‘Triangular Initiative’ was brokered in 2007 by UNODC as complementary to peace-building efforts in the region. The Triangular Initiative forum is supported by the ‘Paris Pact Initiative’ and its ‘Rainbow Strategy for Afghanistan’.
At the meeting, representatives from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime were also present to provide the technical inputs on the matter.
The Iranian delegation told the media that on the first day of the meeting, the three sides agreed to exchange information on counter-narcotics, launch joint counter-narcotics operations, and open border counter-narcotics offices.
The meeting comes amidst the drug problem in the three countries poses as a serious challenge that even threatens the community and the youth, and also affects Afghan refugees in Iran.
Based on some reports, Afghanistan has been among the first-tier countries with a high rate of drug production due to the activities of terrorist groups rooted out of the country’s borders.
UNODC representative in Pakistan Cesar Guedes expressed that the strengthening of regional partnership against the massive flow of illicit drugs in the region, within the framework of this strategic collaborative process, could serve as a means for saving lives and improving their quality.
