"We will continue the cooperation that has so far been held in the form of joint research," minister of fisheries and marine resources Fadel Muhammad said after meeting with Australian minister of agriculture, fisheries and forestry Joe Ludwig at his office here on Wednesday.
The cooperation to be continued among others is research on sustainability of tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean.
Cooperation in other fields include institutional capacity building in stock assessment and case study on management of sardine, lobster and scout fish in Indonesia.
Other implementation of cooperation includes a joint research with the Commonwealth Industrial and Scientific Organization (CSIRO) and the Australian Center of International Agricultural Researches (ACIAR) and coordinated patrol of the Indonesia-Australia Supervisory Forum (IASAF).
Fadel once said that the Indian Ocean has the potential to become a main economic trade route in the 21st century so that cooperation among countries in the region could increase the potential capacity found in it.
"Some said that the Atlantic and the Pacific were the past while the Indian Ocean is the future," Fadel said.
He said he had also had three strategies namely increasing cooperation with a number of countries in the Indian Ocean, viewing the potential in the ocean as one of the solutions to increase food security and conducting researches.
He said a lot could still be learned through researches in the Indian Ocean including about tsunami and the impact of climate change.
Fadel said the Indonesian Ocean had also become an important issue in terms of defense.(*)
(H-YH/R013)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
