Hanoi (VNA) – Secretary of the Interior and Local Government of Philippines Jonvic Remulla urged ASEAN member states to modernise their responses to increasingly sophisticated criminal networks while addressing the 20th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC 20) in Makati City, the Philippines on October 21.
The local media cited him as saying that online scams, money laundering and drug trafficking are closely interconnected, while technology enables criminal groups to rapidly expand their operations across borders. Regional cooperation therefore needed to be stronger to protect citizens from emerging security threats.
One of the key items on the meeting’s agenda was an ASEAN declaration on protecting children from online sexual abuse and exploitation, which addressed risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content. The ministers also discussed ASEAN’s first regional report on human trafficking, outlining achievements in combating the crime.
According to Remulla, ASEAN and its dialogue partners, including Japan, the Republic of Korea and China, are working to advance a joint declaration on strengthening cooperation against human trafficking, terrorism and cybercrime.
In addition to traditional forms of crime, the ministers also discussed threats associated with violent extremism driven by nihilistic ideologies. Remulla stressed that more intelligence sharing, border controls and law enforcement coordination among ASEAN countries remain key measures to effectively combat transnational criminal networks./.
