BRICS Anti-Drug Working Group Meets in Moscow

The BRICS Anti-Drug Working Group held a regular meeting in Moscow on 21 May 2024. The meeting was attended by the heads and employees of the relevant BRICS authorities and their diplomatic missions in Russia.

Police Lieutenant General Ivan Gorbunov, who heads the Main Directorate for Drug Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, delivered a welcome address at the opening ceremony. In his remarks, he emphasized the need to coordinate international cooperation to effectively combat drug trafficking, which has become a global problem of our times.

BRICS officials and representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Russian Federal Security Service, the Russian Federal Customs Service, and the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service who attended the event also noted the importance of developing cooperation in the BRICS format in their speeches.

During the event, which was held in person for the first time since 2017, the participants exchanged information about key trends with drugs in their countries and discussed promising areas of methodological and practical interaction. The expansion of BRICS has made it possible to broaden the dialogue, include interesting aspects of anti-drug efforts and also discuss opportunities to develop law enforcement potential and contacts between the relevant authorities.

The meeting participants considered proposals from the Russian side on the further conceptual development of the BRICS Anti-Drug Group and the final joint communique of the meeting, which is titled ‘BRICS Cooperation in Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking, Including the Capacity-building of Drug Law Enforcement Agencies to Counter Challenges and Threats’.

The meeting took place in a friendly, constructive atmosphere and helped to reach mutual understanding on key agenda items.

The Roscongress Foundation manages the events of Russia’s BRICS Chairship.