US-China fentanyl cooperation gathers momentum with senior meeting in Washington

Anti-narcotic working group formed after Xi-Biden summit meets to clarify direction and strengthen coordination, readouts said

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Senior officials from Chiina and the US have met in Washington as part of the counternarcotics working group to fight fentanyl. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:54pm, 2 Aug 2024Updated: 6:20pm, 2 Aug 2024

China and the US have agreed to further strengthen dialogue and promote “in-depth” drug control, in the first senior-level meeting of the working group formed after the mechanism was agreed to at a summit in November.

The delegations met in Washington, where they “exchanged their respective concerns, exchanged views and suggestions, and clarified the direction of cooperation”, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

The White House said on Thursday that discussions had focused on ways to strengthen coordination on law enforcement actions, disrupt the illicit financing of transnational criminal organisation networks, and accelerate the scheduling of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals.

The meeting also covered measures to address the illicit diversion of precursor chemicals, exchange information on emerging threats and advance progress in multilateral forums, the White House said.

Jennifer Daskal, deputy assistant to the president and deputy homeland security adviser, led the US delegation, while the head of the Chinese side was Wei Xiaojun, director general of the Ministry of Public Security’s Narcotics Control Bureau.

The US-China Counternarcotics Working Group mechanism was launched in January, following the 2023 summit in San Francisco between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden.

The leaders agreed to resume bilateral anti-narcotics cooperation – stalled since former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022 – to combat global manufacturing and trafficking of synthetic drugs, including fentanyl.