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6 countries to discuss terrorism

Six countries are scheduled to meet in Manado, North Sulawesi, next week as the latest attempt to step up the fight against terrorism in a response to a threat of the “franchising of terrorism groups” in the southern Philippines and neighboring countries

Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, July 22, 2017

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6 countries to discuss terrorism

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ix countries are scheduled to meet in Manado, North Sulawesi, next week as the latest attempt to step up the fight against terrorism in a response to a threat of the “franchising of terrorism groups” in the southern Philippines and neighboring countries.

In a ministerial-level meeting that is to be hosted by Indonesia, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto is expected to meet his counterparts from Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Australia and New Zealand on July 29 to talk about counterterrorism and the regionalization of terrorism.

Lutfi Rauf, the ministry’s foreign politics deputy, suggested that the meeting was a follow-up of a global terrorism forum in Bali last year and said the ministry was still coordinating with relevant institutions to prepare for it. Among the invited guest would be Australian Attorney General George Brandis and Gerry Brownlee, New Zealand’s foreign minister.

“We want to make sure that the meeting will go as planned as several ministries and institutions are going to take part,” Lutfi told The Jakarta Post on Friday, adding that more details would be revealed to the public next week.

In August 2016, Indonesia brought together 140 representatives from 23 countries and international institutions, including Interpol and the United Nations. During the meeting, the participants agreed that intelligence information sharing and cybertechnology cooperation were important in the fight against global terrorism.

However, an attack launched by fighters linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement against military forces in Marawi city in the Philippines on May 23 became a wakeup call to the neighboring countries on IS’ threat in Southeast Asia. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on the island of Mindanao to fight the extremists, but he has yet to flush them out of the area.

Since then, Indonesia and Malaysia have established a joint military response with the Philippines to respond to the militant group’s growing threat. It includes the sharing of information and improved communications. However, military forces can only enter another state’s waters when in hot pursuit of terrorists.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said Thursday that next week’s multilateral meeting, called the Subregional Cooperation Meeting on Fighting Terrorist Fighters and Cross-Border Terrorism, was a result of last year’s forum and the trilateral military response with Malaysia and Philippines.

“We call this [recent situation] the franchising of a terrorist group and the forum is important for talking about the issues of terrorism financing, counterterrorism strategies and how to prevent terrorist group regionalization,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi is also scheduled to meet with Saleumxay Kommasith, her counterpart from Laos, on Thursday before she attends the meeting in Manado where she would have her first meeting with Brownlee since he took the office in May. During both meetings, Retno is expected to discuss the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the region.

In the meeting with her New Zealand counterpart, Retno is expected to raise diverse bilateral issues including the possibility of fruit market access development in New Zealand and issues concerning geothermal power.

Denny Abdi, the minister’s director for Southeast Asian affairs, said that Retno and Kommasith would also talk about economic issues, emphasizing that there was still a lot of cooperation possibilities for both countries to explore, including over potassium imports.

“There is big potential in Laos and we can save up to 30 percent as currently we import potassium from Canada and Russia,” Denny said. He added that Indonesia had started an import trial of 500 tons of potassium from Laos.

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