24.11.2021

On November 24, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev received the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Ghada Waly, who is in our country on a working visit.

The topical issues of interaction on combating modern challenges and threats to global and regional security were considered.

The achieved high level and productive nature of practical cooperation between Uzbekistan and this specialized unit of the UN was mentioned with satisfaction.

Since 1995, a Representative Office of the Office for Central Asia has been operating in our country. With its active participation over the past few years, under an umbrella of the current regional program, the financial and technical assistance projects totaling $24 million have been implemented and are being realized.

During the current visit of Ghada Waly, a new regional cooperation program for the countries of Central Asia for 2022-2025 was adopted, which provides for the joint implementation of activities and projects in five priority areas in the amount of $90 million.

In addition, these days the Regional Youth Network against Drugs will be launched in the city of Samarkand and the International Conference on Combating Human Trafficking will be held in the city of Bukhara.

The issues of further expansion of partnership and coordination of interaction in the fight against drug trafficking, organized crime and international terrorism, the introduction of an electronic platform to combat corruption and other areas were discussed at the meeting.

A particular attention was paid to the development of the situation in the region, the importance of coordinated international efforts to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and provide practical assistance to this country.

As a result, an agreement was reached on drafting a joint «road map» to strengthen the consistent and multifaceted cooperation of our country with the UN Office.