Russia, Indonesia to increase coordination between special services to fight Islamic State - Lavrov

JAKARTA, August 9. /TASS/. Moscow and Jakarta have agreed to increase contacts between their special service in the fight against the Islamic State terror group (IS, outlawed in Russia), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following his talks with Indonesian top diplomat Retno Marsudi on Wednesday. "We confirmed that our countries have similar or close positions on the majority of global and regional issues," Lavrov said. "Like Indonesia, we believe that any conflicts and crises should be resolved in accordance with international law and the United Nations’ principles, through political dialogue, negotiations and the search for compromises, while foreign interference is unacceptable," the Russian foreign minister pointed out. "In this regard, we are concerned over the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, despite certain progress in the Syrian settlement process and the fight against terrorism," Lavrov went on to say. "The threat that the ISIL [the former name of the IS - TASS] is, has not vanished. Its members have been spreading all over the world, including the areas close to the Russian and Indonesian borders," Lavrov said. "We have agreed that our special services will pay particular attention to increasing coordination in our joint efforts to fight this scourge," he stressed. "We will boost cooperation in this sphere both on bilateral level and on the Russia-ASEAN platform," he added. Read more