§ 17. Mr. RoyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the role of his Department in combating the international drugs trade. [158625]
§ Mr. BattleThis Government are at the forefront of international efforts to combat the drugs trade. Our aim, as stated in the 10-year drugs strategy, is to halve the availability on UK streets of those Class A drugs which cause the greatest harm, particularly heroin and cocaine, by 2008. The FCO Continues co-ordinate the international elements of this strategy.
We are active in international drugs forums to strengthen the global policy framework for tackling the illegal drugs trade, including in the EU, UN and the G8. As members of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, we continue to play a leading role in pressing for improved management of the UN International Drugs Control Programme. In June the FCO is organising an international conference on the Global Economy of Illegal Drugs—an initiative by the Prime Minister at the G8 Summit in Okinawa last year.
Our programme of counter-drugs assistance overseas is directed at key producer and transit countries. In the last financial year we provided bilateral assistance for law enforcement capacity building and anti-money laundering trading in Iran, UAE, Colombia, Bolivia, the Caribbean, Croatia and Slovenia. And, multilaterally through the UN, we helped to fund drugs crops surveys in Afghanistan and Bolivia, law enforcement co-operation in S.E. Europe and Iran, and demand reduction projects in Iran and Turkey.