REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Thailand, which has one of the world's largest fishing fleets agrees to cooperate with Indonesia to stamp out illegal fishing.

Thai fishing vessels are among the largest in number caught illegally fishing in Indonesian waters.

The agreement was reached on Tuesday at a maritime meeting on the occasion of the ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Asian African Conference (AAC).

"We appreciate Thailand committing cooperation with Indonesia in eradicating illegal fishing," Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo, said here on Tuesday (21/4).

Indroyono said Thailand will tighten control by installing 7,000 systems of tracing device at ships to keep track of their movements in the sea.

Indonesia held a maritime meeting with countries of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), members of Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), archipelagic and Oceanic countries in a bid to drum up support for maritime sector development ahead of the U.N. general Assembly in September 2015 in New York.

"We will close our ranks to make the vision and push for the acceptance of the agenda related to marine sector at the U.N," Indroyono said.

At the meeting, African representatives proposed that an additional component of cooperation in marine and marine resources development should be added to the agreement on Asia Africa Center, which was earlier proposed to strengthen Asian African cooperation.

"I am optimistic it is only a matter of adding a sub component to the agreement," Indroyono said.

He said in order to optimize the Indian Ocean, archipelagic countries reached an agreement on tuna fishing in the ocean.

Vietnamese representative stress the importance of fish breeding to develop fishery sector.

Madagascar proposed sustainable development of blue economy and Bangladesh sought to draw attentiion to problem of climate change in the Indian Ocean.

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