China will strengthen joint efforts with Russia in controlling drugs, particularly on the eastern border, which is at risk of becoming a new international channel for drug smuggling, according to a senior anti-narcotics official.
Cui Cunde, an official in charge of drug control with the Heilongjiang Public Security Department, said that anti-drug authorities considered the international drug problem had spread alarmingly to the eastern border of China and Russia.
Cui said a new bilateral agreement had been signed by the Heilongjiang Public Security Department and Russian authorities to strengthen the close cooperation in exchanging information, catching drug dealers and testing narcotics.
Experts believed that Vladivostok, the largest Russian Far East port, has become a major international maritime trafficking route.
In Heilongjiang Province, which borders Russia, there are at least 50,000 drug addicts and police dealt with 1,877 drug-related cases last year, up 35 percent over 2000.
In a bid to tackle the problem, China has increased bilateral cooperation with Russia in a series of agreements.
In 1996, China and Russia signed a document on cooperation in prohibiting the illegal trafficking and abuse of narcotics.
In 2001, the Ministry of Public Security of China and the Interior Ministry of Russia strengthened cooperation in cracking down on smuggling.
On June 26, Chinese and Russian officials signed another agreement allowing joint action by the two country's police forces if necessary.
All these agreements shaped the framework of cooperation in drug control on the eastern border, authorities said.
Since the cooperation began, Heilongjiang Province has dealt with about 20,000 drug-related cases, caught more than 7,000 dealers, seized 10,000 kilograms of heroin, opium, hemp and ephedrine, and destroyed 133 hectares of illegal poppy plantations.
(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2002)
