(VOVworld) - Illicit drug production and trafficking are posing a huge challenge to the Greater Mekong Subregional (GMS) nations, requiring their broader cooperation to tackle the problem.

The Ministerial Meeting of the Signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Drug Control opened in Hanoi on Thursday attended by the six member countries - Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam along with the  UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The 1993 MoU is designed to deal with the illegal production, storage, transportation, trafficking and use of drugs.

Vietnamese Public Security Minister Tran Dai Quang in his address at the event.

In his speech, Public Security Minister Tran Dai Quang highlighted the important results of two decades of anti-drug cooperation among GMS nations but the drug situation in Southeast Asia is becoming increasingly complicated.

Therefore, signatories to the MoU should clarify the major areas for future cooperation focusing on flexibly applying three international conventions on drug control in line with each member nation, formulating the drug control strategies of each country and the region, and enhancing the autonomy, direct participation and contribution and shared responsibility in the field.

Minister Quang said: “the 2015 Ministerial Conference of GMS countries must serve as a qualitative forum to promote cooperation and information exchange, share drug control experience, and work out strategic solutions for combating the problem, and improving the efficiency of multilateral and bilateral cooperation mechanisms in the sub-region.”

Participants adopted a GMS action plan to bolster cooperation and capacity building among the relevant parties.