Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno L. P. Marsudi and her Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi agreed to increase cooperation in the field of counterterrorism during a bilateral meeting held at the Jordanian Foreign Ministrys office, Wednesday.

According to a press release from the Foreign Affairs Ministry here on Thursday, the two ministers agreed that the current challenge is the threat of regionalization of terrorist groups, with numerous foreign terrorist fighters returning from several countries in the Middle East.

At the meeting, the Indonesian foreign affairs minister cited the situation in Marawi, the Philippines, as an example of regionalization of terrorist groups.

Meanwhile, Jordan is one of the countries in which several citizens had joined foreign terrorist fighters.

To this end, the two foreign ministers stressed the importance of joint efforts, in the form of cooperation and partnership, for countering terrorism and radicalism.

Moreover, Minister Marsudi encouraged a discussion on a memorandum of understanding on intensifying cooperation to counter terrorism and radicalism.

Several areas of cooperation discussed by the two ministers are important to intensify counterterrorism efforts, such as the exchange of information and intelligence, prevention of funding for terrorism, handling of foreign terrorist fighters, deradicalization programs, and interfaith dialogue, as well as capacity building.

"Increasing the capacity of security agencies against terrorism and radicalism is important, so I invite Jordanian law enforcement personnel to the Jakarta Center to forge cooperation in the field of law enforcement," the Indonesian foreign affairs minister remarked.

Diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Jordan had been initiated in 1950. The Indonesian embassy in Amman, Jordan, was opened in 1985, while Jordan established its embassy in Jakarta in November 1986.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017