Turkmenistan hosts regional workshop on modern border security challenges

An OSCE-supported two-day regional workshop on promoting border management and security was held on 7 and 8 May 2018 in Ashgabat.

The regional workshop aimed to promote the regional cross-border co-operation through the exchange of best practices and discussions of international and regional legal and policy framework documents pertaining to Border Security and Management.

The workshop brought together border security officials from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as well as experts from the OSCE and various UN agencies. A representative of the State Border Guard Committee of the Republic of Belarus addressed the role of non-technical means, such as special and search dogs, in the detection of drugs, explosives or counterfeit goods.

In her opening remarks, Ambassador Natalya Drozd, the OSCE Head of Centre, mentioned that “the exchange of views and experiences between experts and the border guard officers on border security issues contributes to a better understanding of the many factors affecting state border security.”

She noted that the OSCE stands ready to enhance regional and cross-border co-operation to further strengthen border security and facilitate the cross-border flow of legitimate goods and services. As noted by the participants of the workshop, the state borders of the countries of the countries in the region are not uniform and the methods to ensure border security are also diverse. Nevertheless, it was strongly emphasized that active regional and cross-border co-operation is essential to effectively address the existing and emerging border security-related challenges and threats.

The workshop was organized within the framework of an extra-budgetary project of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat funded by the Government of Japan.