RI, MALAYSIA AGREE TO SHORE UP BORDER COOPERATION

Jakarta, Dec 11 (ANTARA) - Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to shore up their border-region cooperation in socio-economic, security and prosperity terms, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said here on Thursday.
Speaking at the opening of the 37th meeting of the Indonesia-Malaysia General Border Committee (GBC Malindo), Sudarsono said cooperation between Indonesia and Malaysia in the management of border issues under the auspices of GBC was running well.
The defense minister said Indonesia and Malaysia had a common interest in promoting the prosperity of people living at their shared borders , in protecting them, giving them security, and preserving the environment at their frontiers.
However, Sudarsono said, he two parties should not become complacent because more dynamic and complex problems continued to happen at the border.
"Efforts to deal with non-traditional security threats and challenges such as smuggling, terrorism, illegal logging, illegal fishing, and human trafficking which have been discussed many times at Asean regional level, need to be strengthened at bilateral level as well," Sudarsono said.
Therefore, he added, both parties should continue to evaluate the supervisory systems at their borders in an effort to formulate a new form of cooperation to overcome the various problems at their common borders.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister who is concurrently the country's Defense Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Bin Haji Ahmad Badawi said the two countries needed to step up border cooperation.
"We should not be easily satisfied with what we have achieved, because various criminal acts continue to happen in the border areas," Badawi said.
He added various illegal activities at the border were detrimental to the two countries, especially in the social and economic sectors.
Therefore, Badawi said, Malaysia would be consistent to the agreement which had been reached to manage the border areas well.