Jabar Ekspres – Spokesperson for the National Police’s Detachment 88 Anti-Terror Unit Kombes Pol. Aswin Siregar said Indonesia is enhancing cooperation in handling terrorism issues at the 17th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transboundary Crimes (AMMTC) in Labuan Bajo, NTT, Tuesday (22/8).

The issue of terrorism is one of the priority issues discussed at the 17th AMMTC in Labuan Bajo. Aswin said terrorism is a crime that has no national borders or becomes a cross-border crime.

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“One terrorist group in one country is the same as threatening the entire region,” Aswin said in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai Regency, NTT, Tuesday.

This happens, said Aswin, because many terrorist networks or terrorist organizations are not only in one country but several countries at once. In fact, he continued, terrorists have a more global network; not only in the ASEAN region, but also in several other countries in the Middle East and others.

On that basis, Indonesia encourages information sharing and a common view of the threat of terrorism for countries in the ASEAN region.

Cooperation is also related to handling terrorism funding, spreading information or ideology on social media, as well as joint actions to increase the capacity or ability to handle and prevent in the ASEAN region.

Aswin said Indonesia as chairman of the 17th AMMTC is ready to share experiences and improve joint capabilities for prevention, law enforcement, and post-law enforcement de-radicalization.

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The 17th AMMTC has been underway since Monday (21/8) which began with a plenary meeting. On the first day of the 17th AMMTC session, a memorandum of understanding was signed with six countries related to cooperation in handling transnational crimes.

The agenda on the second day, Tuesday, was a consultation with three partner countries, namely China, Japan and South Korea.