Finland and OSCE train Central Asian senior officials in border security and management

HELSINKI, 6 October 2008 - Enhancing the capacities of border and law enforcement agencies in Central Asia is the aim of a training course that began in Helsinki today.

The five-day course, organized by the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship together with the OSCE Secretariat and the Central Asian field operations, brings together senior officials from border and law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The five Central Asian States face numerous challenges and threats to their border security and management including trans-national terrorism, illicit drug movement and small arms and light weapons trafficking. A further challenge is that three of five countries share a common border with Afghanistan.

"We believe that the Finnish experience and methodologies in the field will be beneficial to our Central Asian guests. We are also eager to learn more from them on existing threats to border security in their respective countries and the region," said Aleksi Harkonen, Head of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship Task Force.

The training course aims to promote constructive inter-agency co-operation between the participating agencies. "This is crucial to an effective response to the multiple threats to border security in the region", said Herbert Salber, Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre.

Activities related to border security and management concept are a priority area for the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship. The course is being delivered by experts of the Finnish Border Guards, Customs and the Ministry of Interior and funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.