The Annual Steering Committee Meeting UNODC Programme for Central Asia held in Ashgabat

On November 6, 2025, the annual meeting of the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) of the UNODC Programme for Central Asia for 2022–2025 was held in Ashgabat.

The meeting was organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan jointly with the Government of Turkmenistan.

The Turkmen side was represented at the meeting by Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan Ovezgeldi Kakalyev.

The hybrid-format event brought together over 100 participants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The PSC Meeting served as a platform to review the Programme’s key achievements in 2025, endorse strategic and operational priorities for 2026, and initiate consultations on the new regional programme cycle for 2027-2030. Participants acknowledged UNODC's ongoing contribution to strengthening regional cooperation in areas such as drug control, crime prevention, criminal justice, anti-corruption, border management, and health-related issues.

Oliver Stolpe, UNODC Regional Representative for Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran and Pakistan, emphasized during his opening remarks that “over the past four years, since the launch of the Programme for Central Asia in November 2021, it has successfully served as a strategic framework for UNODC’s technical assistance to the Central Asian states, helping to address both traditional and emerging development challenges and security threats.”

Meeting participants reaffirmed UNODC’s commitment to working closely with regional stakeholders to strengthen institutional capacities, promote coordinated responses to drug trafficking and organized crime, and enhance justice and health systems across Central Asia.