Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul traveled to Russia in late June 2006 to participate in a Paris Pact Initiative ministerial meeting and to join President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on a state visit scheduled for 28 to 30 June.
Speaking to reporters at Ataturk Airport before departure, Gul said the Moscow gathering would address narcotics trafficking routes and the broader harm caused by the Afghan opium trade to countries across Europe and Asia. The meeting, co-organized by Russia's foreign ministry and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), aimed to strengthen coordinated international efforts against heroin flows originating in Afghanistan.
Gul also planned to sit in on talks between President Sezer and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to hold separate discussions with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He noted that Türkiye seeks to raise bilateral trade with Russia to 25 billion USD, with Turkish companies already having committed billions in investments there.
The Paris Pact Initiative was launched by UNODC after a founding ministerial conference in Paris in 2003. Afghan-produced heroin accounts for up to 90 percent of Europe's supply, fueling a global illicit trade estimated at over 40 billion USD annually. More than 50 countries and 20 international organizations, including Interpol, NATO, and the WHO, were represented at the Moscow session.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in June 2006, in its own words.