BNPT-Australia Strengthens Counter-Terrorism Cooperation

JAKARTA - The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) are working together in countering terrorism through the 8th bilateral consultation meeting.

"This meeting aims to strengthen cooperation in counter-terrorism by prioritizing the dialogue mechanism as agreed in the memorandum of understanding," said Head of BNPT Komjen Boy Rafli Amar in a written statement quoted by Antara, Wednesday, April 13.

Boy Rafli said the bilateral consultation was a regular annual meeting between the two countries to discuss various terrorism issues at the bilateral, regional, international level, and share intelligence information.

He said there were several agendas at the meeting, including the views of the two delegations in seeing threat trends at the global, regional and domestic scope, including the latest information on the partnership between the Australian and Indonesian Governments.

"This includes strengthening the judiciary and security institutions or the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice (AIPJ2)," he said.

Then the national and bilateral priorities of the two countries as well as the development of the leadership of Indonesia and Australia in international forums, and several counter-terrorism cooperation programs that will be implemented in 2022, he said.

In general, he explained, the meeting highlighted the national strategies and policies developed by Australia in countering terrorism, including violent extremism.

Basically, he said, this was not much different from what was implemented in Indonesia, namely the strategy of the National Action Plan for Combating Violent Extremism that Leads to Terrorism (RAN PE).

Both parties agreed to develop technical cooperation in the issue of online radicalization, issues regarding women and children, youth, and terrorism financing, especially the misuse of digital technology.