HANOI, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese government has agreed in principle that the Ministry of Public Security will host the 38th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Drug Matters (ASOD) in 2017 and the sixth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Drug Matters (AMMD) in 2018, the Government Office said on Monday.
The Ministry of Public Security has been tasked to coordinate with the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Defense, and Finance, as well as relevant agencies and localities to make preparations for hosting the two meetings.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has advocated a collective regional response to drug abuse and illegal drug trafficking almost from the start of its cooperative efforts when it consisted of only five members.
In more recent times, ASEAN has reiterated the urgent need to act against the ever-increasing menace of drug abuse and illegal drugs trafficking. In issuing ASEAN Vision 2020 at their second informal summit in 1997, the ASEAN leaders embraced for the first time the idea of "a Southeast Asia free of illicit drugs, free of their production, processing, trafficking and use."
