From March 3 to 6, 2015, the EastWest Institute (EWI) convened the 5th meeting of its Joint U.S.-Russia Working Group on Afghan Narcotrafficking. This group seeks to find ways for the United States, Russia, Afghanistan and other countries in the region to work together to combat the trafficking of narcotics from Afghanistan. In Washington, DC, the working group held internal discussions that will inform its consensus reports and met with U.S. government officials. In New York, EWI organized a roundtable discussion on Afghan narcotrafficking at EWI's New York Center, where the working group was joined by representatives of the Permanent Missions of Afghanistan, China, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia to the United Nations; the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; the staff of the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control; and other prominent experts on the substantive topics. 

Click here to read the working group’s latest report, Afghan Narcotrafficking: Post-2014 Scenarios.

Click here to read the working group’s first report, Afghan Narcotrafficking: A Joint Threat Assessment.
 

Event Photos

Asila Wardak of the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN and Ambassador Zahir Tanin,
permanent representative of Afghanistan to the UN with EWI Vice President David Firestein
 

Roundtable on Afghan Narcotrafficking at EWI’s New York Center
 

Representative of the Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN with EWI Vice President David Firestein
 

EWI Working Group member H. Douglas Wankel with Zhao Ningning of the Permanent Mission
of China to the UN
 

Deputy Chief of Mission M. Ashraf Haidari of the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi and Farhad Basharyar of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Vladimir Ivanov, director of EWI’s branch in the Russian Federation
 

5th Meeting of the Joint U.S.-Russia Working Group on Afghan Narcotrafficking at the
George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
 

EWI Working Group members Konstantin Sorokin, David Mansfield and George Gavrilis with
EWI Vice President David Firestein