Sochi hosted the meeting of the Joint Board of the Ministries of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan.

Opening the meeting, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation General of the Police of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolokoltsev wished the guests marvelous impressions of their visit to Sochi that after the Olympic Games has become not only a world-class tourist center, but also a popular site for holding international forums.

The Chief of the Russian MIA congratulated the participants in the event on the 25^th anniversary of the diplomatic relations establishment between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan and reminded that “the constructive collaboration between the two ministries in combating terrorism, extremism and transnational organized crime also considerably contributes to strengthening the bilateral partnership”.

The Russian Minister especially emphasized the state of the interaction between the two ministries in fighting illegal drug trafficking. That issue does not become less urgent over time because drug crimes are a serious threat to both the states.

“In recent years, our ministries have done a lot to strengthen the positions in the anti-drug area. The cooperation here is developing both bilaterally and multilaterally within such international organizations as the CIS, the CSTO, and the SCO,” said Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

According to the Minister, more than 200,000 drug crimes were exposed last year in the Russian Federation, which is one tenth of the total number of all recorded offenses. 24 tons of narcotics were removed from illegal trafficking, including nearly 2 tons of opiates, mostly Afghan-sourced, that were delivered to Russia along the so called “Northern route”.

It was noted that citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan were also involved in narcotic drug smuggling and distribution. According to the statistics, they take the second place among foreign citizen detained last year for having perpetrated drug crimes in Russia. Almost two thirds of them acted within organized groups and communities. 24 citizens of Tajikistan involved in illegal drug trafficking were detained at transport infrastructure facilities.

Vladimir Kolokoltsev stressed that there still remained a range of topical issues in the area of combating drug trafficking expansion and proposed to focus on the development of additional measures to solve those issues: “We do have a potential to enhance our joint efforts in that area, and we should fully use these possibilities.”

Discussing the state of the information communication between the Ministries of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan, the participants in the event expressed their shared opinion that its quality greatly impacted the efficiency of counteracting common criminal threats and challenges in general.

“The completeness and promptness of information exchange directly influence final results of the measures being implemented to prevent, investigate and expose crimes, to search and detain perpetrators,” emphasized the Russian Minister speaking about the formation and use of forensic and dactyloscopic records of the inter-state data bank that already includes over 103 million recorded documents.

During the meeting, the parties also approved the action plan of the Joint Board for 2018.