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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is establishing a new coalition of nations to counter the threat posed by illicit synthetic drugs, as the US presses China to stop exporting chemicals used in fentanyl.
The new group, dubbed the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats will develop plans to target fentanyl, the biggest killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49, and other synthetic drugs including tramadol, methamphetamine, captagon (a meth-like narcotic popular in the Middle East), MDMA, and ketamine. Blinken said he will host a virtual ministerial meeting on July 7, 2023, to launch the new coalition with dozens of nations and international organizations.
Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats
The coalition of more than 80 countries includes the European Union (EU), Japan, Germany, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Panama, and Peru. The US isn’t dedicating new funding to the coalition but hopes to gain more information about how the precursor chemicals move around the world, according to the official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The US also wants to encourage better labeling and monitoring at ports, and get a sense of what resources countries might need to help crack down on synthetic drugs, the official said.
China Invited to Join
“I made clear that we need much greater cooperation to address this critical issue,” Blinken said in Beijing. He said the US and China had discussed a joint effort to stop the flow of precursor chemicals.
The US official said China has been helpful in the past. Shipments of fentanyl from China to the US dropped to almost zero when Beijing listed it on its drug export control list in 2019, the official said.
“We’ve invited China,” Robinson, the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, told reporters on a telephone call.
“We don’t have any indication at the moment that they’re going to participate.”
Although Beijing “had not engaged” with U.S. officials on the issue in recent months, Washington still actively sought its help, he added. “This isn’t about blame, and this isn’t about pressure,” Robinson said.
“Part of the reason we’re trying to bring this coalition together is to engage other countries in their efforts against the supply chain, and part of their responsibility is going to be engaging with the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” he said.