Cambodian and Thai anti-drug officials yesterday gathered for a closed-door meeting on strategies for fighting what Cambodian representatives characterised as a rising tide of drug trafficking.

The meeting was presided over by General Ke Kim Yan, former commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and head of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), and Thailand’s head of its Council of Drug Monitoring and Justice Minister Phaibul Khumchaya.

“Deputy Prime Minister Kim Yan told his Thai counterpart during the meeting that Cambodia has remained a transit point for drug trafficking, and both trafficking and consumption is still increasing; it is seriously affecting the nation and needs immediate resolution,” So Kheoun, an NACD administrator, told reporters after the meeting in Phnom Penh.

Phaibul Khumchaya pledged to offer material and technical support in combating cross-border trafficking, he added.

NACD secretary-general Meas Vyrith said there had been almost twice as many drug cases – nearly 2,000 – in the first eight months of this year as there had been in the entirety of 2014.