ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on drug matters held in Brunei

ASEAN ministers met here Tuesday to tackle the issue of illegal drugs in an effort to move towards a drug-free regional bloc by 2015. The preparatory Senior Officials Meeting for the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Drug Matters (Prep-SOM) took place Monday. The meeting was chaired by the Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office (Security & Enforcement), Dato Paduka Awg Hj Hamdan Hj Abu Bakar. Senior officials had a comprehensive discussion on the regional drug situation in ASEAN, the achievements recorded and the challenges towards achieving the vision of a Drug-Free Asean 2015. Tuesday's meeting saw exchange of views. It recommended several initiatives on the way forward and stressed the importance of conveying a consistent message on ASEAN's work on addressing and combating the drug problem, which is a work in progress. The first Joint Declaration for a Drug-Free ASEAN 2020 was made in 1998 by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers (AMM) in Manila, the Philippines and later again in 2000. ASEAN Foreign Ministers at the 33rd AMM in Bangkok then agreed to pull the target year back from 2020 to 2015.