NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday highlighted that the world has less than a decade to mount a coordinated response to the global narcotics crisis before the damage becomes irreversible.
He called for a unified international legal and intelligence framework to combat drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.
Speaking at the RN Kao Memorial Lecture 2026 organised by Research and Analysis Wing, Shah said fragmented national approaches had allowed international drug cartels to exploit legal loopholes and expand their influence across borders.
“If joint efforts are not initiated now, after 10 years the world will realise that it was too late to reverse the harm,” Shah said before an audience comprising ambassadors and high commissioners from over 40 countries, former R&AW chiefs and senior members of India’s security establishment.
Delivering the lecture on the theme “Narcotics: A Borderless Threat, A Collective Responsibility”, Shah linked the global drug trade directly to terrorism, organised crime and geopolitical instability. He warned against the emergence of “narco-states” and said proceeds from drug trafficking were increasingly being used to finance terror networks and parallel economies.
The annual lecture series, instituted in 2007, honours Rameshwar Nath Kao, the founding chief of R&AW.
Members of Kao’s family were also present at the event.
Shah reiterated the government’s commitment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a “Drug-Free India by 2047”, saying Indian agencies had prepared a roadmap to dismantle narcotics syndicates under a strict “Zero Tolerance” policy.
“Not one gram of narcotics will be allowed to enter India or use the country as a transit route,” he said.
The Home Minister, however, focused much of his address on the lack of global consensus in anti-drug laws, arguing that inconsistent definitions of banned substances and varying punishments across jurisdictions had weakened international enforcement efforts.
“Unless there is a high degree of global alignment on what is designated as controlled substances, as well as common standard penalties for drug trafficking, drug cartels will continue to take advantage of the inconsistencies in policy,” he said.
Shah proposed a four-point framework for international cooperation: a uniform global definition of prohibited narcotics, standardised punishments for trafficking offences, streamlined extradition of drug kingpins and real-time intelligence sharing among countries.
Highlighting India’s recent enforcement efforts, Shah said the country had repatriated more than 40 transnational criminals over the past two years with support from partner nations, though he acknowledged that “much more” remained to be done.
Addressing diplomats directly, Shah urged governments to treat the narcotics crisis not merely as a law-and-order issue but as a broader civilisational challenge requiring coordinated political, intelligence and security responses.
“A world of 8 billion people, 195 nations, and 250,000 kilometres of international borders cannot tackle the problem of drugs through fragmented approaches,” he said.
He concluded by calling for collective global action that rises above geopolitical divisions, stressing that the fight against narcotics networks and narco-terrorism must be pursued simultaneously through intelligence sharing, coordinated operations and sustained international cooperation.