Argentina has signed an agreement with the European Union against drug trafficking

Minister of National Defence, Anibal FernandezSigned this morning in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, A Cooperation agreement between European Union (EU) and the Latin American Committee on Internal Security (CLASI) – of which Argentina is a part – which established a comprehensive agenda for the fight against drug trafficking and other transnational crimes.

“We are concerned about what is happening, we are concerned about the relationship with Europe, because it opens our eyes, because it helps us think about many things, and we can also help them. A lot of drugs that go to these places from Latin America, with other countries that have acted accordingly, with strong policies, They give us answers that are more important than we think,” Fernandez said after a meeting in the Council of the Latin American Security Council, a union of interior and defense ministers from Europe and Latin America.

Fernández added: “There are things we need to do together. From the moment we organized the Latin American Group for Internal Security, we did two monitored deliveries with Spain, with the Spanish police with excellent results, we have models.” The Argentine official led CLASI between March 2022 and 2023, when he handed over the temporary presidency of the organization to Panama.

The document, just agreed in Brussels, proposes “creating a mechanism that allows the identification of points of convergence between countries’ security agendas in order to find joint solutions”. Last week, Fernandez signed an agreement with the US government to cooperate with the Kirchner Cultural Center in the same sense. At that event, in the presence of Sergio Massa, Minister of Economy and presidential candidate of the Union Por La Patria, and Mark Stanley, the US ambassador in Buenos Aires, it was agreed to increase joint work to fight transnational crime. Mentioned are drug trafficking, money laundering and human trafficking.

“The goal is to specialize international cooperation to strengthen the security of both regions of the world, especially in crimes that cross national borders,” it was noted on this occasion in Brussels. The text of the agreement highlights the support for the institutionalization process of Ameripol (Police Community of America) to strengthen its role in the fight against organized crime in Latin America.

Ameripol is a hemispheric cooperation mechanism created in 2007 that consists of 35 police or security forces from 29 countries and 30 observer organizations. It seeks to be an international reference for hemispheric and global security.

During the ministerial meeting, Fernández – who will return to Buenos Aires this Friday – held bilateral meetings with officials from Eurojust, Europol, the European Union Agency for Police Training (CEPOL), Spain, Belgium and Colombia. Directorate of International Associations of the European Union (INTPA).

Aníbal Fernández’s trip to Europe is a continuation of his work with the European Union delegation at the beginning of 2023. In February in Strasbourg, France, the minister signed Argentina’s second additional annexation. Protocol to the European Union’s Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.

At that time, our country joined the extensive list of already signed countries such as Germany, Italy, Andorra, Japan, Austria, Lithuania, Belgium, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Morocco, Chile, North Macedonia, Colombia, Montenegro, Costa. Rica, Portugal, Croatia, United Kingdom, United States, Dominican Republic, Spain, Moldova, Slovenia, Romania, Estonia, Serbia, Finland, Sri Lanka, France, Sweden, Greece, Ukraine, Netherlands and Iceland.