JAKARTA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Brunei Darussalam have pledged to step up cooperation in combating terrorists following the IS's militant strikes in the Philippines, a senior official said here Monday.
Indonesian Chief Security Minister Wiranto made the remarks after attending the sub-regional meeting on foreign terrorist fighters and cross-border terrorism in Manado city of North Sulawesi province at the weekend.
The meeting agreed on the establishment of a forum on counter foreign terrorist fighters in a bid to strengthen cooperation and share information among the law enforcers and intelligence, Wiranto said.
The countries gave an approval on cooperation with firms providing social media services, video file sharing and messaging to monitor the presence of terrorists or counter their moves, he added.
"So, the companies providing social media facilities will help us to search whereabouts of the terrorists and to block their mission," he said.
The forum also agreed to conduct a comparative study on terrorism in each nation, and step up cooperation among institutions to block financing of terrorists, said Wiranto.
He disclosed that a further sub-regional meeting would be held next year.
