SCO and US Must Work Together on Drugs Strategy

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation must work closely with the United States to establish an effective anti-drug trafficking cordon around Afghanistan, say NBCentralAsia experts.



During the SCO summit in Bishkek on August 16, Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke of the need to establish an around Afghanistan to stop narcotics being exported.



Members of the SCO, a regional security organization founded in 2001, include Russia, China, Tajikistan, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Iran, Mongolia, India and Pakistan would like to upgrade their observer status to full membership, while Afghanistan recently said that it would like to join.



The heads of anti-narcotics agencies in SCO member states have now been tasked with presenting a detailed analysis of the situation and offering recommendations for a systematic approach to tackling drug trafficking.



Afghan president Hamid Karzai supports the idea, suggesting that the SCO make the fight against the illegal drugs trade a priority.



But NBCentralAsia analysts say the SCO is not in a position to cooperate with the United States in Afghanistan.



Kanat Berentaev, the deputy director of the Kazakstan Centre for Social Problems, says the SCO needs to cooperate with the US and provide field commanders in Afghanistan with vital knowledge and experience. However, he doubts that relations between the US and the SCO are good enough to work on that level, given the anti-US rhetoric which appears at each SCO summit over issues such as the American air base at Manas in Kyrgyzstan, which Russia would like to see closed.



Valentin Bogatyrev, director of the Kyrgyzstan Fund, which supports development programmes, believes a fight against drugs should drive SCO-US relations. Because most opiates from Afghanistan end up in Europe and Russia, Europe should be brought on board as well.



It is unclear how the anti-trafficking zone would work in practice. The president of the Institute for Public Policy in Kyrgyzstan, Muratbek Imanaliev, says that SCO member states must quickly develop a clear strategy if it is to have any impact.



Corruption in the SCO countries which border Afghanistan also threatens to thwart any attempts to establish an anti-drug zone, according to Sagyngali Elkeev, head of Equal to Equal, an association that fights drug abuse in Kazakstan.



“There is no obstacle to the drug trade wherever there is corruption. The level of corruption in state institutions should be reduced, and only then will such an undertaking be effective,” he said.



(NBCentralAsia presents comments and analysis from a wide range of observers throughout the region)