EU and China hold the third dialogue on drugs policy

On 23 April, the EU and China held the third dialogue on drugs in Brussels. The Director for Internal Security, Floriana Sipala chaired the meeting, which was attended by EU Member States, the Presidency and Secretariat of the Council, the European External Action Service, EU agencies and Chinese representatives. They exchanged on the importance of this dialogue that took place for the first time in 2021, the drug situation and policies in the EU and in China, and the growing phenomena of new psychoactive substances, synthetic drugs and drug precursors. Participants confirmed the outcome of the technical meeting held the day before under the agreement on Drug precursors and discussed measures to reduce drug demand and harm reduction. Finally, the dialogue allowed for an exchange of views on the EU and China positions in international fora on drugs, following up to the recent 67th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

The third dialogue is the first one that took place physically and followed the 20th EU-China Summit in 2018. The next dialogue on drugs is planned to take place in 2025.

These exchanges take place in the context of the EU’s actions in the area of drugs policy, as foreseen in the EU Drugs Strategy 2021-2025 and the related action plan, and pertain to the priority actions identified by the Commission in its EU roadmap to fight drug trafficking and organised crime.