Indonesia planned to bring the issue of anti-terrorism to the upcoming 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits and Related Summits scheduled to be held in Laos, an Indonesian senior minister said on Monday.[Special coverage]
"As the chair of delegation for political and security issue, I would expect our sponsored international meetings to discuss terrorism mitigation efforts from measures to the financing of terror organization," Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political, Security and Legal Affairs Wiranto said.
"It would be part of subjects discussed in the upcoming ASEAN Summit," he added.
Indonesia hosted the International Meeting on Counter-Terrorism (IMCT) and a high profile meeting to counter terrorism financing (CTF) in Bali last month.
Wiranto, who is Indonesia's former military commander, said Indonesia has essential role in regional efforts to fight terrorism, saying that terrorism has been regarded enemy of every country in the Southeast Asian nations' bloc.
Wiranto said Indonesia highlighted the importance to intensify monitoring of borders to address terrorism as borders were being used by terrorist to trespass the nations they targeted.
He called on regional countries to have open mind in discussing ways to combat terrorism when it comes to national borders.
"Discussions developed in the IMCT have come to a point on how to 'delete' the formal borders by working together in mitigating terrorism which does not recognize borders."
The Indonesian minister also pointed out the need to improve intelligence cooperation at international level, enabling each country to exchange information related to terrorism.
High alert must also be applied on the misuse of information technology in cyber world conducted by the terrorists, both for their propaganda and facilitation of their operation, he added.
"Intelligence is the source of accurate information related to international terrorist activities which have links to other terror groups operating in the region," he said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who is scheduled to attend the upcoming ASEAN summit in Laos, is expected to deliver a speech on the importance to promote peace and stability in the region.
