Trump Hails India's Poppy Crackdown, Names It Among 23 Drug Transit Nations
In a Presidential Determination to Congress, Trump welcomed PM Modi's efforts against illicit opium poppy cultivation while listing India among 23 major drug transit nations.
US President Donald Trump has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to curb illicit opium poppy cultivation, even as his administration identified India among 23 major drug transit and illicit drug producing countries.
In a Presidential Determination sent to the US Congress and made public on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he looked forward to continued cooperation through the United States-India Drug Policy Framework. He welcomed the efforts of Mr. Modi and the Government of India to address illicit opium poppy cultivation and to strengthen supply chain integrity.
The directive named Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, China and Pakistan alongside India on the list.
Mr. Trump made clear that inclusion on the list does not necessarily reflect a government's current counterdrug efforts or its coordination with Washington. Countries are placed on it, as required by US law, because of a combination of geographic, commercial and economic factors that allow drugs or precursor chemicals to transit or be produced, even where a government has pursued robust narcotics control and law enforcement.
Mr. Trump also pointed to what he described as historic progress by his administration against drug trafficking and narcoterrorist organisations, citing tighter border security, lower drug seizures and a decline in overdose deaths. He said seizures of fentanyl and other drugs smuggled into the United States had fallen by more than half after what he called four years of open border chaos, and that overdose deaths had plunged, claiming the administration had saved tens of thousands of American lives.
Turning to China, Mr. Trump urged stronger action to stem the flow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs. He said the People's Republic of China remains the world's largest producer of many precursor chemicals used to illicitly manufacture such drugs, adding that he had raised the matter directly with President Xi Jinping. Beijing introduced licensing requirements last year for companies exporting designated precursor chemicals to North America.