EU, Russia Sign New Agreement On Combating Illicit Drugs

The European Union and Russia have signed a new agreement that will strengthen cooperation between the two sides in preventing drug precursors from being trafficked for the manufacture of illegal drugs, it was announced Tuesday.

Drug precursors are chemicals that are primarily used for the legitimate production of a wide range of products such as pharmaceuticals, perfumes, plastics, and cosmetics. However, they can also be misused for the production of illicit drugs such as methamphetamines, heroin or cocaine.

The EU and Russia signed the new cooperation agreement on the control of drug precursors earlier on Tuesday at the EU-Russia Summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.

The agreement was signed earlier on behalf of the EU by the Irish Presidency of the Council in Brussels, and at the summit on Tuesday by EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton and Director of Russia's Federal Narcotics Service Viktor Ivanov.

The new agreement will enable competent authorities in the EU and Russia to exchange more practical, technical and scientific information on drug precursors, to ensure they are only used for legitimate purposes.

"Customs has the dual responsibility of keeping our society safe, while facilitating trade for legitimate businesses. Controlling drug precursors is a prime example of how this is applied," Algirdas Semeta, the European Commissioner responsible for Customs, was quoted as saying.

"For international threats, like narcotics trafficking, international cooperation is the best defense. Therefore, I warmly welcome today's EU-Russia agreement to work hand-in-hand in preventing drug precursors from being used to make illegal drugs," Semeta added.

The agreement fits in the wider framework of the 1988 United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs to which both the EU and the Russian Federation are parties. It covers the 23 scheduled substances internationally controlled under the 1988 UN Convention and also establishes cooperation on controlling non-scheduled substances used for the illicit manufacture of drugs.

The EU has already concluded bilateral agreements on drug precursors with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, United States, Chile, Turkey and China. These agreements provide for cooperation in trade monitoring and mutual administrative assistance.

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