Fighting Terrorism
April 4, 2007
Schäuble met with his Russian and US counterparts in Berlin on Wednesday. Their plans to come closer in the fight against terrorism include combating "the recruitment of younger generations" by terrorist groups, fighting opium production in Afghanistan and making Interpol more efficient in tracking people who use false identities.
"We have agreed on a range of concrete measures," Schäuble said after meeting with his Russian and US counterparts in Berlin.
An advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Victor Ivanov, said a Russian proposal was adopted to set up a working committee to fine-tune cooperation with the EU and the United States.
"We have agreed to produce a roadmap," he told reporters.
Nuclear "nightmare"
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his country's concerns had also become those of Russia and the EU in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"We are bound by the common agenda of protecting our people from terrorism and we plan on strengthening the bonds forged by difficult times."
The "worst nightmare" the countries could imagine was a nuclear attack by terrorists, said Chertoff.
They had discussed ways of ensuring that radicals did not obtain the material to make so-called dirty bombs.
"We need to find a global solution to the illegal trade in nuclear materials. We need to improve our networks because the terrorists are improving theirs," he said.
Afghanistan
The officials said they agreed that the opium trade in Afghanistan was financing international terrorism and that more needed to be done to root it out.
"We need to help farmers to find an alternative way of producing crops and we need to do more to fight drug smuggling," Schäuble said.
Afghanistan is expected to produce a record crop of opium poppies in 2007.
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said opium production was increasing rapidly in the south, where the Taliban is waging its strongest insurgency since it was ousted in 2001.
"We therefore have to continue with the stabilization of the country and with efforts to establish the rule of law on the ground and reform the justice system," he said.
The meeting was followed by the start of a two-day meeting of interior and justice ministers from the United States, Germany and Portugal -- the current and future EU presidents -- also attended by Frattini.