Australia Agrees to Train Indonesians in Cyber Security
By Anton Muhajir on Oct 11, 2018
Australia will send experts to train Indonesian law enforcement personnel in cyber security, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said Thursday.
Ryamizard and his Australian counterpart, Christopher Pyne, discussed counter-terrorism and what role Canberra might have in the Southeast Asian intelligence-sharing group called “Our Eyes” during their talks on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Bali.
“Australia has better technology,” Ryamizard said. “They will send trainers from Australia to train our cyber security personnel.”
Pyne said Australia already was engaged in analysis of shared information with Indonesia, but his meeting with Ryamizard focused on cyber security and about disrupting the financial affairs of terrorists operating in the region.
In January, six members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines – launched the “Our Eyes” initiative, which officials said could lead to a more accurate and quicker response to cross-border security threats.
The concept for “Our Eyes” comes from the “Five Eyes” intel-sharing alliance involving Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the United States.
Indonesia proposed the initiative in October 2017 at the ASEAN Defense Ministers meeting in the Philippines shortly after that country defeated Islamic State-linked militants who occupied the southern Philippine city of Marawi.
Pyne praised Indonesia for its success in preventing IS cells from making inroads like they did in Marawi and said the two nations would cooperate to further degrade the extremist group.
“Particularly as foreign fighters are returning to Southeast Asia, that will be critical,” he said.
Malaysian and Indonesian nationals were among foreign fighters killed in Marawi. Officials said ASEAN nations should be wary of fighters returning from Syria and Iraq now that IS has been defeated there.
Sustainable development goals
Along with the IMF meeting, Bali on Thursday hosted ASEAN leaders who renewed their commitment to achieving sustainable development goals for their countries.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres joined the Southeast Asian leaders.
Guterres spoke about the importance of the special report released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that declared the potential disaster “is running faster than we are – and we are running out of time.”
The report details devastating consequences if the world fails to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius.
Guterres called for ambitious, urgent action with “unprecedented changes in all aspects of society to cut carbon emissions by half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050 – especially in key sectors, such as land, energy, industry, buildings, transport and cities.”
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said sustainable development must be an integral part of his policies.
Indonesia faces a daunting task of rebuilding communities after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Sulawesi island. The natural disasters killed more than 2,000 people and rescuers said about 5,000 people are unaccounted for or missing.
Jokowi said sustainable development policies have allowed Indonesia to protect coastal areas, develop infrastructure, reduce inequality and improve education participation.
“The advent of technology has helped narrow the gap in access to education,” he said, expressing high hopes that the nation can achieve its development goals by 2030.
Source: Benar News