REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Indonesia is seeking to cooperate with Sri Lanka to tackle human smuggling, according to Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Marty Natalegawa.

"Both Indonesia and Sri Lanka face the same problem. We believe that the two countries are ready to put an end to the issue of human smuggling under the aegis of the international forum, Bali Process," Natalegawa stated, following a closed-door meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Gamini Lakshman Peiris, on Monday.

At the meeting, Natalegawa and Peiris discussed the question of human smuggling as both nations consistently send migrant workers abroad, the Indonesian minister noted. He further said that to prevent and overcome human smuggling, Indonesia needs to cooperate with other countries, such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India and Australia, which face the same problem.

"We will cooperate with Sri Lanka to solve the issue of human smuggling, the smuggling of people to Australia for instance," Natalegawa affirmed.

At the meeting held at the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two ministers also discussed the possibility of increased cooperation in the sectors of trade, investment, agriculture, fisheries and tourism. According to Natalegawa, the meeting was also aimed at achieving the target of two-way trade, which has been set at 1 billion USD for 2015.

"We have agreed to double our efforts to ensure that the existing good relations with Sri Lanka become better," he added.

Furthermore, the Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs GL Peiris pointed out that planned cooperation with Indonesia would benefit the sectors of economy, politics and health in his country, and improve human resources as well.

"Sri Lanka must cooperate with other countries and have mutual understanding of political relations with them. We will then be able to increase economic growth, human resources and health services in our country," Peiris remarked.

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