Today, an agreement on cooperation in fighting against illegal sale of narcotics, psychotropic substances and their precursors was signed in Moscow between Ministry of Counter Narcotics of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN). The head of Counter Narcotics Ministry, General Khodaidad and the director of FSKN, Victor Ivanov signed the document.

This is the second agreement signed by the two countries on cooperation in fighting against threat posed by drug trafficking. The first agreement in this area between Kabul and Moscow – intergovernmental agreement on fighting drug trafficking – was signed in March 2009 when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Kabul.

Speaking at the ceremony General Khodaidad noted that it would be difficult for Afghanistan to defeat the threat posed by narcotics and terrorism without Russia’s assistance to the country. He spoke highly of the operation code-named Kanal carried out by Russia to intercept drug trafficking. He expressed hope that with the signing of the agreement Russia’s role in the fight against drug trafficking in Afghanistan would be intensified.

The head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service Victor Ivanov, on his part, emphasized the importance of the signing of the agreement because the document would become serious legal basis for cooperation between the two countries in fighting against spreading narcotics of Afghan origin. According to Victor Ivanov, the agreement will help to exchange surveillance swiftly, and paves the way for revealing and eliminating stable drug trafficking and jointly training specialists in both Russia and Afghanistan. Victor Ivanov reminded Russia had a project to train officers of counter narcotics police of Afghanistan. “Now, we are ready to develop this experience and in case of necessary, send instructors to train specialist in Kabul,” the head of FSKN noted.