On March 15-16, 2022, with the invitation of the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their precursors (CARICC), the delegation of the Regional Office for Capacity Building for the World Customs Organization Europe Region (ROCB Europe) visited the CARICC in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

During the visit, a bilateral meeting was attended by Major General Mirolizade Rustam Aziz, the director of CARICC, the chiefs of the leading departments of the CARICC, the authorized representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the delegation led by Eser Çengel, the director of the ROCB Europe.

The main purpose of the meeting is to expand the cooperation between CARICC and ROCB Europe, to inform about the infrastructure opportunities and expert resources of CARICC, to discuss the provisions of the Protocol (held in Baku on 29.11.2021) on the expansion of joint cooperation between CARICC and ROCB Europe.

After the welcoming speech by Mr. Mirolizade Rustam Aziz, informative presentations were presented on the work of the center's specialized departments.

In turn, Mr. Eser Çengel, informed about the activities of ROCB Europe with emphasizing that experts of CARICC always make informative and relevant presentations at the webinars organized by ROCB Europe and noted the rapid development of cooperation between the organizations.

During the meeting, the head of both organizations expressed their opinions about  identifing permanent coordinators for the use of the infrastuctural capabilities of these organizations by holding events from virtual platform to physical platform and continue sustainable cooperation at national and regional levels, as far as the condition of pandemic allows. They also emphasized the necessity of exchanging training information and progress reports which can be useful for Customs administrations and component authorities of CARICC and ROCB Europe.