JAKARTA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia and New Zealand have agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation in combating terrorism through information exchanges and preventive efforts.
The agreement was the result of the meeting between Indonesian government's anti-terrorism desk of BNPT head Suhardi Alius and New Zealand's Assistant Commissioner for International and National Security Michael Pennet.
Alius said during the meeting on Wednesday that he and his New Zealand counterpart shared the experiences and views in dealing with terrorism issue.
The two shared similar concerns on the returning of Islamic State (IS) militants to their respective countries. Those militants, popularly known as Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF), have posed new security threats to several Asian countries.
Alius and Pennet agreed on measures to jointly fight terrorism, including terrorists' families and members of radical groups.
"This approach also includes the de-radicalization programs that we have applied here," Alius said.
Senior security officials of Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines attended the sub-regional meeting on FTF and cross-border terrorism in Indonesia's North Sulawesi over the weekend.
