DEPUTY Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dato Seri Paduka Awang Haji Hamdan bin Haji Abu Bakar attended the Sub Regional Meeting on Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) and Cross Border Terrorism (CBT): Enhancing Domestic and Collective Response on July 28 – 29 in Manado, the Republic of Indonesia.
The Sub Regional Meeting on FTF and CBT was co-hosted by General Wiranto, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and Senator George Brandis CQ, Attorney General of Australia.
Ministers, head of delegations and senior officials from Malaysia, New Zealand and the Republic of the Philippines also attended the meeting.
Three main issues were deliberated on at the meeting, namely the current state and possible development of FTF and CBT in the region; domestic and regional strategies to Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) and Deradicalisation; and the legal framework – where Brunei Darussalam led the discussions for two of the sub main issues of the meeting.
Dato Seri Paduka Awang Haji Hamdan shared Brunei’s experience in dealing with FTF and CBT. This included:
– Maintaining regular bilateral and multilateral cooperation with regional counterparts;
– Undertaking various approaches in managing terrorism threats, including whole of government approach and strengthening its legal framework while enhancing cooperation with regional security agencies especially on information sharing;
– Adapting preventive counter-terrorism strategies in preventing and deterring the spread of radical ideology and propaganda into the country;
– The importance in engaging with relevant local communities and non-government actors in developing strategies;
– Empowering youth, family, women, religious, cultural and education leaders, and all other concerned groups of civil societies, and promoting social inclusion and cohesion; and
– Malay Islamic Monarchy (MIB) philosophy which serves as the core of national solidarity to ensure harmony, security, stability and well-being of the nation and the people of Brunei.
Following extensive deliberations and sharing of experiences, the meeting came up with a joint statement on the following issues:
– To respond collectively in a manner that is coordinated, strategic and pursued at all levels of government together with private actors and civil society;
– To conduct a law enforcement dialogue on the issue of ISIS;
– To establish a Foreign Terrorist Fighters Strategic Forum;
– To highlight the importance of comprehensive whole-of-government responses and the development of national plans of action;
– To enhance effort and cooperation in addressing the root causes and underlying conditions of terrorism;
– To hold a sub-regional best practice roundtable on the management of terrorist offenders in prisons and post release;
– To enhance collaboration with civil society organisations and other community groups;
– To engage the industry-led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism;
– To undertake a comparative study of their respective terrorism laws;
– To foster closer cooperation and collaboration among border control agencies;
– To strengthen cooperation and capacity building among financial intelligence units;
– To convene the next Sub Regional Meeting on FTF and CBT in 2018; and
– The establishment of a working group of senior officials.
The Brunei delegation included senior officials from the PMO and the Internal Security Department.
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