Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 10
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:
The High-level dialogue meeting on policy and security issues between the European Union (EU) - Central Asia and Afghanistan has been held in Ashgabat, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The meeting has been held at the level of deputy foreign ministers. The delegation of the European Union was headed by the Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs of the European External Action Service, Jean-Christophe Belliard.
The agenda included issues of countering international and regional security threats, such as terrorism, radicalism, extremism. In this regard, the joint actions of the Central Asian and EU countries on border management, drug control within the framework of the European Union’s programs "BOMCA" (Border Management in Central Asia), "CADAP" (Central Asia Drug Action Program), "EU-ACT" (trans-regional program EU Action against Drugs and Organised Crime), as well as the current security situation in Afghanistan were discussed.
The parties made proposals to improve the efficiency of cooperation in the trade and economic sphere, transport, environment, water resources and elimination of the consequences of testing of nuclear weapons, the message says.
In addition, the preparation of the EU Strategy for Central Asia and cooperation, as well as regional aspects of cooperation have been discussed at the meeting. The participants exchanged views on the upcoming EU-Central Asia Ministerial meeting to be held in Brussels at the end of 2018.
Heads of delegations of the EU and Central Asia countries expressed support for a peaceful settlement of the situation in Afghanistan, stressed the importance of further cooperation in the framework of the Security Dialogue EU-Central Asia with the participation of Afghanistan.