Strengthening international cooperation in the fight against drugs

	An Giang Customs prevents smuggling at border route
	Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department: The core of the Customs force in the fight against drug crimes

Drug evidence in a project jointly destroyed by Vietnamese and Cambodian authorities in early 2023. Photo: Provided by C04.

Global problem

According to Major General Nguyen Van Vien, Director of the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department (C04, Ministry of Public Security), the world and region are facing complicated developments in the production, trading, illegal transfer of drug and drug abuse. Since 2010, the number of drug users in the world has continued to increase and shows no signs of decreasing.

The area under poppy cultivation globally is now much larger than it was a decade ago. New amphetamine-type stimulants and psychotropic substances are appearing more and more with complex, difficult-to-control variations, continuing to challenge the efforts of drug prevention and control forces in countries around the world, threatening to the security, health and happiness of everyone, especially young people. This is a big task for the world in general and the region in particular in solving this problem.

“Drugs are a global problem, so to prevent crime and drug abuse, we need the cooperation of countries. The viewpoint of the Party, State and Government of Vietnam is to resolutely suppress and not tolerate drug crimes,'' Major General Nguyen Van Vien emphasized.

To strengthen international cooperation in fighting drug crimes, the Ministry of Public Security has attended many relevant international conferences.

Recently (August 11, 2023), in Vientiane Capital (Laos), Lieutenant General Nguyen Duy Ngoc, Deputy Minister of Public Security led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the ASEAN Ministerial Conference on drug issues 8th (AMMD8). Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc emphasized that the drug market is increasingly closely linked and diversifying production and trading activities, especially synthetic drugs.

Along with that, criminal groups have thoroughly taken advantage of cyberspace, e-commerce platforms and loopholes in the control of import and export goods between countries to increase criminal activities in terms of scale, nature and severity with many new methods and tricks, directly affecting many areas of social life, causing difficulties in prevention and combat.

Zero tolerance for drug crimes

According to Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Duy Ngoc, crime and drug abuse are a serious challenge to the rule of law and the sustainable development of each country, continuing to be a danger to the community and society, affecting the health of people around the world, threatening the political, economic and social security of the ASEAN Community.

To fight effectively with the drug threat, the Government of Vietnam always focuses on drastically directing all levels and sectors to synchronously deploy solutions; Reducing supply and demand combined with reducing harm caused by drugs. In particular, high priority is given to deploy drug prevention solutions early and remotely.

In addition to domestic efforts, Vietnam also promotes cooperation with countries in the region. Vietnam has always been consistent with ASEAN's common stance of zero tolerance for drugs, resolutely not to become a drug transit area, and continues to pursue the long-term goal of a drug-free ASEAN community.

With the responsibility of a member country, Vietnam has actively and responsibly participated in the common activities of the region such as the 43rd and 44th ASEAN Summit of Senior Officials; coordinate in developing a report on the assessment of the ASEAN Cooperation Plan on combating illegal drug trafficking and production in the Golden Triangle area 2020 - 2022; ASEAN drug surveillance report 2022; draft ASEAN Joint Declaration at the High-Level Meeting of the 67th CND Conference in Vienna, Austria in 2024, etc.

According to the Deputy Minister of Public Security, in order to achieve the goals and requirements set out, in the coming time, ASEAN member states need to focus on implementing a number of solutions to promote and improve the effectiveness of cooperation in the fight against drug prevention and control, such as: it is necessary to continue to maintain and improve the effectiveness of existing cooperation mechanisms such as the ASEAN Ministerial Conference on drug issues; The working group to prevent and control drugs by air, seaport or consider building other cooperation mechanisms to achieve more efficiency.

Countries continue to strengthen coordination of transnational combat activities; Deploying solutions to control and prevent the loss of precursors and destroy drug production facilities; Strengthen the deployment of drug control stations at key routes; technical support and capacity building for law enforcement forces; Strengthen and expand the activities of the Cross-Border Liaison Office (BLO).

At the national level, the parties need to proactively improve the quality of information exchange through focal agencies; share experiences in drug prevention and combat; Deploying peak propaganda campaigns, attacks, and suppression of drug crimes on the border; Conduct general investigations into cases related to transnational drug crimes, etc.

Regarding international cooperation in drug prevention and control; wildlife trafficking crimes, September 2018 Vietnam Customs and China Customs jointly initiated and launched Mekong Dragon Operation. The campaign received great technical support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific (RILO AP) of World Customs Organization (WCO) as well as the consensus of participation of the Customs agencies of 6 countries in the Mekong river sub-region.

Up to now, the Campaign is being implemented in phase 5 and expanding the number of participating members to dozens of countries and territories (at the end of phase 4, there was the participation of 29 law enforcement agencies in Asia-Pacific region).