Roundup: Indonesia initiates trilateral agreement to cope with security challenges in part of Southeast Asian waters

Indonesia initiated a trilateral meeting aimed at promoting coordinated efforts to secure waters in part of Southeast Asian waters from hijacking and smuggling activities, attended by senior officials from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The high-profile meeting was held in Indonesia's city of Yogyakarta, resulted in a four-point agreement to address security issues in waters of respective countries involved in the trilateral meeting that may hinder trade and economy activities in the region.

The meeting was to respond to escalating hijacking activities against vessels transporting commodities from and to those three countries, kidnapping crews of those vessels for ransoms.

Ten Indonesian seamen were recently released from captivity of a Philippine rebel group Abu Sayyaf after being taken from their coal vessels since late March. Their release was resulted from excellent cooperation between Indonesia and the Philippines authorities, reports said.

Four other Indonesian seamen were still in the kidnaper's custody at present as negotiation process to free them is still underway at the moment. They were kidnapped by the same group in the Philippines' waters last month.

Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting attended by foreign ministers and military chiefs of those three countries, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi pointed out that preserving peace and stability in the affected waters would also give direct benefit to assure economic welfare in ASEAN nations in general, not only to the countries involved in the trilateral agreement.

"Today's meeting showed huge commitments of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to assure peace, stability and security in the region," she said in Yogyakarta on Thursday.

Besides Retno who was accompanied by Indonesian military commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, The Philippines was represented State Secretary Jose Rene D Almendras and the acting military commander Caesar Taccad. Malaysia was represented by Foreign Minister Sri Anifah Aman and Military Commander Tan Sri Dato' Sri.

Dignitaries attending the meeting agreed that piracy, kidnapping and other trans-national crime acts in their waters would further tarnish trust in trade, commerce activities and the territory itself in general.

According to the data compiled by Indonesian authority, 55 million metric tons of goods and 18 million people went through waters bordering the three nations in ASEAN regional bloc.

Learning from such a condition, the delegates in the trilateral meeting agreed to conduct joint-patrol to prevent piracy and smuggling activities in waters of those three nations.

They were also agreed to provide emergency and swift responses should they find vessel in hijacked situation and for victims of those crime act.

Those three nations were also agree to set up hotline communication system to share information in a state of emergency and security threat.

Besides that, a standard operation procedure (SOP) regarding the joint forces operation would also be arranged immediately, to be further discussed by foreign ministers and military commanders of those three nations.

"We would direct the creation of a clear SOP, so as to clear us up in carrying out steps of the operation and would benefit all of us," President Joko Widodo said after received a courtesy visit of those high-profile figures of those three nations.

The president pinned high hopes that the coordinated trilateral moves to confront the ongoing crime acts on waters of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines would contribute benefits in each respective nation. Endit