DUSHANBE, April 11, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan’s Drug Control Agency (DCA) is expected to open its next local office in Mazor-i Sharif, the capital of the Afghan province of Balkh, in the coming ten days, the DCA said.

The source at the Tajik counternarcotics agency said that Tajik drug control chief, Lieutenant-General Rustam Nazarov, was in Afghanistan last week to discuss all organizing issues related opening of the DCA office in Mazor-i Sharif.  

During his stay in Kabul, Nazarov held talks with head of the antinarcotics department of the UK Embassy in Kabul.  According to the source, both sides hailed a level of cooperation between the governments of the United Kingdom and Tajikistan in fighting drug trafficking and highly appraised activity of the DCA office in Kunduz.  The source said that the meeting had resulted in signing of a protocol on continuation of financing of the DCA local office in Kunduz and beginning of financing of the DCA office in Mazor-i Sharif through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).     

In Kabul, the Tajik drug control chief also met with representative from the UNODC.   This meeting was also attended by representatives from the European Union and international organizations dealing with the implementation of the drug control project in Afghanistan, according to the source.  The meeting focused on the present drug situation in Tajikistan.  The Tajik drug control kingpin briefed those present on the results of activity of the DCA in 2006.  

The DCA director also held talks with the Deputy Interior Minister of Afghanistan, Colonel-General Muhammad Dovoud.  The Afghan side expressed gratitude to Tajikistan for joint counternarcotics operations carried out in the territory of Afghanistan.  During the meeting it was noted that Afghan Government plans to take measures to ensure 35%-40% reduction in poppy cultivation in the countries this year.  According to Dovoud, some 65 percent of drugs produced in Afghanistan are transported via Iran, 22 percent via Pakistan and 13 percent via Central Asia.

The office to be opened in Mazor-i Sharif will be the third office of the DCA in Afghanistan.  To date, two offices of the Tajik counternarcotics agency have functioned in Afghanistan: one in the city of Kunduz (Kunduz province) and another one in Fayzobod (Badakhshan province).  The offices have been established stems for a bilateral counternarcotics agreement between the two countries.