The Government remain committed to engagement with the Governments of both Pakistan and Iran to tackle the flows of opiates from Afghanistan.
The UK has supported the work of the Pakistan government to update its drugs strategy (“Masterplan”) and earmarked US $80,000 of its contribution to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for consultancy input to its development. The UK provides diplomatic and political support to the Pakistan government’s counter-narcotics (CN) work, including through some £800,000 in the last three years to train officers of the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) and to provide them with equipment. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on 8 March 2006 that the UK had agreed to gift two helicopters to the ANF for CN work. Delivery is expected in the early spring of this year. The UK Serious Organised Crime Agency enjoys operational co-operation with its Pakistani partners on counter-narcotics issues.
The UK has also contributed to the work of the UNODC in Iran. With the support of the Government of Iran, the UNODC has developed a strategy to build international support for tackling drugs demand and trafficking of opiates in Iran. The UK has contributed £500,000 to the UNODC in the last three years for this purpose with a particular focus on the provision of equipment and training of officers combating the trafficking of opiates on Iran’s eastern border with Afghanistan. Additionally, we have supplied bilaterally some £30,000 of equipment for policing the eastern border.
The Government further engages to support a number of multilateral fora in which the policies and operations of governments in this region are co-ordinated and developed. The Paris Pact, organised by the UNODC, brings together those donor and beneficiary nations which are committed to tackle the drugs flows from Afghanistan to Europe; a database organised by the UNODC collates and co-ordinates the contributions of the donor community and matches these with the identified needs of countries on the trafficking routes. The Afghan government’s work on the Good Neighbourly Relations Declaration (GNRD) on CN, agreed in Berlin on 1 April 2004 and in which the UK acts in an observer role, brings together all immediately neighbouring nations and commits them to work with each other and with Afghanistan to develop CN work. The UK is supporting the Ministry of Counter Narcotics’ plans to hold a further GNRD meeting this year.