Indonesia, Philippines Agree to Boost Maritime, Border Security Cooperation

TheIndonesia.id - Indonesia and the Philippines have reached agreement to speed up negotiations related to maritime boundary and delimitation as well as reviewing existing agreements related to border-crossing.

During the visit of Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. to Bogor Palace, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to revise border security agreements to ensure its relevance.

"[On] border cooperation, we agree to review two maritime security agreements, so they remain relevant to the public,” Widodo said on Monday, September 5, as reported by Antara.

The two aforementioned agreements are border crossing and order patrol agreements.

The Southeast Asian countries also reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate negotiation on maritime delimitation based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In addition, the state leaders also oversaw the update of a Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement (TCA) between Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

The TCA was birthed as response to growing security challenges, including the abduction of innocent civilians by armed groups in the region.

“Because it is important to secure our maritime territories from kidnapping and hostage-taking threats,” the Indonesian President said.

Aside from the focuses related to border and maritime security, Widodo and Marcos Jr. also discussed potential cooperation enhancement on trade, infrastructure, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).