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On 15 September 2026, the US President sent Congress the FY2027 determination naming 23 major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries, including India, China and Pakistan — all three were also on the FY2026 list.
Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma (Myanmar) and Colombia were designated as having 'failed demonstrably' to meet counternarcotics obligations; Bolivia, Burma and Colombia received national-interest waivers.
The determination welcomed India's efforts against illicit opium poppy cultivation and cited the US-India Drug Policy Framework; China was called the world's largest producer of many fentanyl precursor chemicals.
The listing is made under Section 706(1) of the US Foreign Relations Authorization Act, FY2003, and does not by itself mean a country is failing to fight trafficking.
Requires the annual presidential list of major drug transit/producing countries and the 'failed demonstrably' designations
India's main anti-narcotics law; licit opium cultivation is permitted only under licence
The international obligations the US determination measures countries against; India is party to all three
India sits between the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan — opium/heroin) to its west and the Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Laos, Thailand — opium, methamphetamine) to its east, exposing it to trafficking routes across South, Central and South-East Asia.
India's apex drug law-enforcement agency, set up in 1986 under the NDPS Act
Published the determination; its INL bureau handles international narcotics policy
GS Paper 3 > Internal security: drug trafficking; GS Paper 2 > India-US relations
Current Affairs > International
US designation for listed countries judged to have made no substantial counternarcotics effort in the past 12 months
A substance used to manufacture drugs such as fentanyl or methamphetamine
Opium-producing region spanning Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan