China and US vow closer cooperation in fighting America’s fentanyl crisis as drugs group begins its work

Washington said new working group’s first meeting in Beijing was a ‘good start’ but says ‘there’s a lot more work to be done’ in fighting illicit opioid trade

Agreement to work together in the war on drugs was hailed as one of the main ‘breakthroughs’ following the summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping last year

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Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the US each year. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:00pm, 31 Jan 2024Updated: 10:17pm, 31 Jan 2024

China and the United States have pledged to step up efforts to fight illicit drugs such as fentanyl as part of their latest efforts to stabilise relations.

An inter-agency US delegation led by deputy homeland security adviser Jen Daskal travelled to Beijing on Tuesday for a two-day talk with their Chinese counterparts and to launch a counternarcotics working group.

“It is hoped that both sides will … continually expand cooperation in various fields to inject more positive energy for the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations,” Wang Xiaohong, the Chinese Minister of Public Security, told the working group’s inaugural session, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua.

The US said the two sides had agreed to better coordinate efforts by law enforcement to disrupt the flow of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals, address the illicit financing of transnational networks and improve information sharing.

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US, China join forces to counter global fentanyl trade

“It was a good set of discussions,” White House national security council spokesman John Kirby told the press on Tuesday. “That’s a good start, but it is just a start. And there’s a lot more work to be done.