From 18 to 25 January 2021, the UNODC Global Firearms Programme, together with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre of the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism (UNOCT/UNCCT), and the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) conducted a virtual deep-dive assessment mission in Kyrgyzstan.

The mission allowed for a dialogue between national institutions and project stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the current situation related to illicit SALW trafficking and its links to terrorism in Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region as a whole. National institutions discussed their current initiatives and capacities to prevent and combat the illicit trafficking of SALW and their illicit supply to terrorists, as well as their status of implementation of relevant international instruments and Security Council resolutions on counterterrorism, including resolutions 2370 (2017), 2482 (2019) adopted in this field. It also allowed the United Nations and Kazakhstani authorities to assess the existing legislative, institutional and operational frameworks and response capacities to address firearms trafficking and its nexus to terrorism, as well as to identify their priority technical assistance needs, which could be addressed and supported through the project.