Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu participated in the High-level Segment of the 67th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
The Commission is the main UN body in the international fight against drugs. This year over 180 high-ranking delegations focused on analyzing the global situation and joint implementation of the 2019 Ministerial Declaration on countering the drug threat.
In his speech, Minister informed the delegations about measures to implement the national plan to combat drug addiction and drug trafficking for 2023-2025, which was developed in cooperation with experts from the UN, OSCE and other international organizations, noted the comprehensive nature of Kazakhstan’s work in this direction, combining prevention, human rights protection and law enforcement.
Touching upon the situation in the region, the Kazakh diplomat emphasized the important role of the Central Asian Information Coordination Center for Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking (CARICC) in strengthening cooperation and countering drug trafficking from Afghanistan.
The head of the Kazakh delegation placed special emphasis on joint efforts to combat a new threat – synthetic drugs, the illegal trafficking of which has increased tenfold in recent years. In this regard, Kazakhstan is actively implementing the UN Strategy to Combat Synthetic Drugs and will host in the next year the Regional Ministerial Conference on joint response to this new threat to our collective security.
Murat Nurtleu specifically focused on the humanitarian and socio-economic crisis in Afghanistan and called on participants to support Kazakhstan’s proposal to create the UN Center for Sustainable Development for Central Asia and Afghanistan.
The head of the Kazakh delegation spoke in support of the “Pledge4Action” initiative, calling for concrete pledges as a result of the meeting, and announced our country’s commitment to open medical and social rehabilitation centers for the treatment of drug addiction in Kazakhstan within a year.