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1st Narcotics Control Cooperation Meeting between the People's Republic
of China and Thailand was held at the Imperial Mae Ping Hotel in Chiang
Mai during 14-16 January 2002. The meeting was opened by the Chairman,
Mr. Kitti Limchaikit, Secretary-General of the Narcotics Control Board
and Head of Thai Delegation. The list of delegates appears as Annex 1. The meeting was the sub-consequent activity under Thai-China MOU on the Cooperation in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursor Chemical Control, which has been signed on October 10, 2000 in Bangkok. The forum has raised and shared the drug problems and situation of their own countries. Numbers of concrete cooperation have been formulated. 1. The floor has learned that the greatest drug threat in China is derived from Golden Triangle. Domestic drug consumption keeps scaling up continuously. Besides, the traditional drug such as "heroin," the new ATS such as "Ice" and "MDMA" rapidly gained the local market sharing, especially, among the youth. Moreover, the syndicate of local drug criminals and the foreigners' drug gangsters have colluded together to produce ATS in the remote area. Having encountered this serious situation, Chinese Government has put a determined stand against drugs and took unswerving efforts to combat this evil. At the macro-level, the Government carried out persistent publicity and education with wide coverage to reduce drug demand. For the diversion of precursor chemicals, Chinese government implemented strict import & export checking system in accordance with the requirement of relevant UN conventions. As a result, it is able to acclaim that the diversion of ephedrine is absolutely controlled by Chinese Government. Furthermore, China always pays a great attention and fully supports bilateral, regional and sub-regional cooperation on drug scheme. 2. Thai Delegation exchanged the information on drug situation. Recently, the most serious drug of abuse in Thailand was "Yaba" or Methamphetamine which was mainly produced in the neighboring countries and smuggled into the North and the West of Thailand. There was a sharp rising trend in both the number of methamphetamine users and the arrest of methamphetamine cases and tablets. A critical indicator of precursor chemical smuggling was assumed. Since, there were only less than ten kilograms of imported Ephedrine for scientific purpose has been declared in every year. However, in the matter of fact, the precursor chemical could be delivery via another country other than Thailand, alternatively. For the anti-drug measures, Thailand has launched the Royal Decree on Commodities Control to control Caffeine in 32 districts in 6 northern provinces, Ether and Chloroform in 8 northern provinces and 5 southern provinces. The Thai Delegation quoted "Operation Andaman" case as the successful joint cooperation of the Region and accredited Chinese authorities for their great contribution for the accomplishment of the mission. Lastly, he called for mutual recognition on international cooperation and confirmed that this bilateral meeting was deemed one of major constituents for better drug control in this region. 3. It was agreed that the annual meeting on narcotics control cooperation between China and Thailand will be held and taken turn by each country once a year. 4. China and Thailand will organize study visits for each other, at least, once a year, in which could be combined with the annual meeting. 5. Thailand accepted with warm welcome to the Chinese proposal of two study tours to Thailand in 2002. 6. The meeting agreed on four main channels; 1) under urgent circumstances, communication between Heads of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) and the Office of the National Narcotics Control Commission (ONNCC) be conducted through hot-line; 2) for official contact, communication between central agencies, namely, the ONCB and the ONNCC be conducted; 3) To facilitate for smoother and faster of narcotics control cooperation, communication through drug liaison officers (DLO) be promoted; 4) if necessary and only approved by the central agencies, appointed provincial officers of two countries be able to communicate. 7. At present, Mr. An Gaojun from ONNCC is the Chinese DLO to Thailand and Mr. Wanchai Disates from ONCB is the Thai DLO to China. 8. The meeting agreed that the establishment of networking for strengthening the cooperation on narcotics control would be explored by the working groups. 9. The meeting has been divided into 2 working groups; Law Enforcement Working Group and Supply/Demand Reduction Working Group. 10. Law Enforcement Working Group has discussed on the channel of coordination, cooperation on intelligence/information exchange, cooperation on operation, precursor control, airport interdiction, mutual legal assistance, and the proposal on Mekong River Project. 11. Supply/Demand Reduction Working Group has discussed on the alternative development, Opium survey by remote sensing technique, and drug abuse prevention and treatment. 12. The People's Republic of China agreed to host the next meeting in Kunming in January 2003. The meeting was held in the spirit of cordiality and mutual understanding of the two countries.
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