REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia and the Philippines held the 1st Meeting of Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism in Jakarta on Thursday.

The meeting is a follow up to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the Indonesian National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) of Indonesia and the Philippine Anti Terrorism Council (ATC) in May 2014.

"Since the MoU was signed, we have not implemented it. But now, with the happenings in Marawi and other places in the Philippines, we have taken the initiative to hold the first cooperation meeting to discuss a number of issues in the Philippines," BNPT Chief Commissioner General Suhardi Alius said.

Suhardi said he had met with the chief of the Philippine delegation to the meeting to discuss the possibility of the two countries sharing experiences and information in handling terrorism.

"The information and experiences on what we have done may be useful for the Philippines," he said.

At the meeting the Philippine delegation learned much from Indonesia about the ways to handle religious, ethnic and race plurality and a variety of cultures which according to the Philippines are difficult to unite, he said.

BNPT also gave a chance to the Philippine delegation to ask about terrorism-related issues any time, if need be, he said.

"I and all members of the Indonesian delegation gave them phone numbers to which they can contact any time in the future to talk about anything for the benefit of common interests," he said.

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