DUSHANBE, June 15, Asia-Plus - A two-day meeting of the council of CIS interior ministers opened in St. Petersburg today. 

According to Tajik ministry of interior (MoI), the meeting is focusing on ways to counter illegal migration within the CIS area.    

The source at a MoI said that the CIS interior ministers are also discussing issues related to raising efficiency of interaction in combating drug trafficking and organized crime.  

Interior ministers from Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are taking part at the St. Petersburg session.  

In the meantime, a delegation of Tajik interior ministry (MoI) led by it head Mahmadnazar Solehov was on a two-day working visit to Moscow on June 13-14. 

On Wednesday June 13, a working meeting of senior representatives from MoIs of the two countries was held, press service of Russia’s ministry of interior said.  The meeting focused on state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between the ministries.  

In the course of the talks Solehov and his Russian counterpart, Rashid Nourgaliyev, hailed a present level cooperation and noted that one of the most topical issues is a concerted realization of an efficient migration policy. 

The meeting participants noted that along with such threats as terrorism, extremism, and drug trafficking illegal migration is one of negative factors, impacting economic, political and social spheres of society.   

 Tajik and Russian high-ranking police officers noted that MoIs of the two countries could successfully cooperate in creation of telecommunications infrastructure, database for registration of foreign citizens, etc.  

During the meeting, it was noted that a large-scale operation, dubbed “Search”, carried out in March had yielded good results.  172 internationally wanted persons, with seven of them being citizens of Tajikistan, were detained in the territory of the Russian Federation.  Six Russian nationals wanted by Russian police were arrested in Tajikistan.  

Nourgaliyev invited officers of the Tajik MoI special force unit to take part in an international exercise for special force units from the CIS states and the far abroad countries that will be held in Russia’s Krasnodar region on July 12-15, 2007.  

One of priorities of cooperation between the MoIs of the two countries is fight against organized crime and drug trafficking.  From November 2006 to June 2007, 12 officers from the Tajik counternarcotics sub-divisions took training courses at Academy of Russia’s MoI. 

Besides, Russia provides assistance to Tajikistan with training of personnel for its MoI.  In 2006-2007, 106 officers from Tajik MoI took training courses in Russia.