Thailand Agriculture Minister Chatchai Sarikulya has met with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti to discuss illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and will follow the approach taken by Minister Susi to deal with the issue.

After meeting with Susi in Jakarta on Friday, Chatchai said that the Thai government was committed to controlling unofficial local fishing activities and would be open to cooperating with the Indonesian government.

"We understand and are strongly committed to eradicating illegal fishing. We are closely and seriously cooperating with Indonesia to handle the problem, for both our sakes,'€ Chatchai said as reported by kompas.com.

He said that the Thai government would follow Susi's methods to tackle illegal fishing. "I really appreciate being warmly welcomed here and I will do the same in Thailand later," he said.

On the same occasion, Susi expressed her appreciation for the Thai government acting more firmly on illegal fishing. "Ships (guilty of IUU fishing) that get sent back there will be punished well," Susi explained.

The cooperation with Thailand to tackle illegal fishing will not change a lot of what has already been implemented in Indonesia, according to Susi. She said if ships pleaded guilty, they would be sunk. "We want to solve (IUU fishing) together. But it does not mean boats that were stolen will not still be sunk," Susi said.

So far Indonesia has sunken more than 100 boats and ships that were found guilty of catching fish in Indonesian waters. (anh/bbn)

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