Asean nations launch new pact

Anti-terror effort aims to improve intelligence cooperation

JAKARTA: Six South-East Asian nations have launched an intelligence pact aimed at combating militants and improving cooperation on security threats, overcoming what analysts described as a high level of distrust.

Under the “Our Eyes” initiative, senior defence officials will meet every two weeks to swap information on militant groups and develop a common database of violent extremists.

The intelligence sharing arrangement comes after insurgents aligned to the Islamic State group laid siege to the southern Philippine city of Marawi last year.

Dozens of foreigners – most notably Indonesians and Malaysians –

were among hundreds of militants who seized large parts of Marawi and engaged in a ferocious battle with Philippine forces that left much of the city in ruins and more than 1,100 people dead, according to government figures.

Some of the foreign fighters are believed to have travelled to Marawi via the porous maritime borders of the Sulu Sea next to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

“This is something that seems so simple, but the effect is extraordinary,” said Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu at the “soft launch” in Bali yesterday.

He said intelligence sharing would help ensure another incident like Marawi did not occur and prevent the region from “becoming like the Middle East”.

He added that the intelligence sharing was “specifically for (combating) terrorism and radicalism”.

While led by military forces, the intelligence sharing would “involve all parties”, including police.

Along with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei – all members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations – have signed up to the pact.

“It’s a significant development,” said John Blaxland, an intelligence analyst from the Australian National University.

“Asean has long struggled with getting beyond superficiality when it comes to collaboration on security matters.”

Blaxland said relations among Asean states had been bedevilled by a “high level of distrust” around intelligence cooperation.

“Operational imperatives are overcoming that and you are seeing that come to fruition with this mechanism,” he added.

This is something that seems so simple, but the effect is extraordinary. Ryamizard Ryacudu