REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The governments of Indonesia and Turkey have agreed to manifest a concrete cooperation on immigration to overcome the problem of foreign terrorist fighters (FTF).

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and National Terrorism Agency (BNPT) head Comr. Gen. Suhardi Alius have just conducted a bilateral meeting regarding the topic with Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu who is in charge of security, police and immigration.

"So far it has been going well with Turkey considering its very strategic position as the access of many FTF to go to Syria," Retno told the press after the 1.5 hours-meeting at the Turkish Interior Ministry, Ankara, Wednesday.

Moreover, Turkey's geographical location which is close to Syria causing more than two million refugees flee from the conflict-affected country to Turkey.

In response to such challenges, Indonesian and Turkish government have discussed an MoU draft of cooperation on immigration.

According to Retno, both governments expect an acceleration for the cooperation to be carried out in order to optimalize the joint work to handle the FTF phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Indonesia also requested inputs from Turkey against the FTF considering that border security and large number of incoming flows have been important issues for Turkey for years.

Terrorism will also be one of the issues to be discussed on a meeting between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his state visit to Turkey on July 6.

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