Last month, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard and several other government officials met to discuss efforts against terrorism.
Several specific measures were agreed upon and cooperation to work together was established which includes intelligence sharing.
With the rising global threat of terrorism, there is never enough security measures to guarantee that the threat will disappear. Hence this collaboration comes as a key regional and bilateral collaboration for the two nations who have been hit by terror attacks recently.
Last year, Sydney suffered from a hostage crisis where 18 Australians were held hostage for over 15 hours. Indonesia have also had a history of terrorist attacks although several measures have kept them free of terrorism for the past 3 years.
"The matters that were discussed related to cybercrime, intelligence sharing, technical co-operation, including combating terrorism financing, as well as enhanced co-operation in certain operational matters at an agency level," Australian Attorney-General Senator George Brandis said in Jakarta on Monday.
The focus of the discussions specifically revolved around terrorism activities by the Islamic State (IS) group.
The collaborated methods and measures include Indonesia's Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan also announced the heightened security measures during this current holiday season and acknowledged the unassuming threat of terrorism.
"No country is immune from terrorist attacks, but I can assure you that we are working very hard to tackle this issue and so far have been successful in monitoring all potential terrorist activities," said Luhut.
Just this week, 9 suspects were arrested during an anti-terrorism raid. The suspects were allegedly plotting a major attack in the Indonesian capital during the New Year celebrations.
According to authorities, the arrest was based on intelligence from the US, Singapore and Australia.
This agreement comes as a major follow up for Indonesia in terms of enhancing security. Just last week, Indonesia signed a defence pact with Japan. The defence pact was forged agree on transfer of defence equipment and technology.
Image from GeoWombats– CC BY -SA 2.0