India comes on board in battle against illegal drug trade in Asia
India comes on board in battle against illegal drug trade in Asia
Associated Press, Chiang Mai, Thailand
India joined four Asian nations on Saturday at the core of the
region's drug trade in a new plan to fight the production and
trafficking of opium, heroin and methamphetamines.
Thai foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai said he and
visiting ministers from India, Myanmar, Laos and China met in
this northern city to endorse the scheme.
India was represented by Information Technology and
Communications Minister Arun Shourie, while the other ministers
hold the foreign portfolio.
Under the plan, opium-producing countries will step up efforts
to make poppy farmers substitute their crops with legal ones so
they can earn a reasonable living, Surakiart said.
The ministers also agreed to work more on marketing substitute
crops to make their production more lucrative, and therefore more
attractive to farmers, Surakiart said.
Apart from India, the four countries have already been working
together in a formal framework since 2001 to curb the production
and flow of drugs. A formal signing ceremony for India's
accession to the group will be held in July in Thailand during
another ministerial meeting of the five countries, a Thai foreign
ministry official said.
Thailand began the crop substitution project several decades
ago to successfully bring its opium output down to negligible
levels.
Pilot projects are underway in Myanmar, which has vowed to
make the country drug-free by 2004. Laos has targeted 2005 for
eradicating opium.
The five countries also agreed to more tightly regulate the
chemicals needed for the production of the illegal stimulant
methamphetamine, which is mostly smuggled from China and India.
Controls on these chemicals are lax because they also have
legal uses, such as in medicine and dye.
The Golden Triangle area where the borders of Thailand,
Myanmar and Laos meet has long been one of the world's major
sources of opium and its derivative, heroin.
Myanmar is the world's second largest producer, after
Afghanistan, of opium and heroin, and recently has become a major
exporter of methamphetamines. Laos is the world's third biggest
opium producer.
Saturday's meeting was held as part of the second annual
gathering of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue, which comprises 18
countries.
The topics to be covered in the meeting Sunday include trade
and a government-backed Asian Bond Fund to promote the region's
bond markets.
The ACD members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan,
and Qatar.