Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos. (Photo: Antara)The two countries agreed to review the revised border crossing and the border patrol agreements, said Indonesian President Joko Widodo at a joint press statement broadcast live.
The two sides also pledged to accelerate negotiations on the delimitation of the continental shelf based on the 1982 UN Convention of Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Additionally, Widodo lauded the inking of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two countries in defence and security, which encourages strengthening water safety and security in border areas.
He also highly spoke of the renewed Trilateral Cooperative Agreement (TCA) between Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, saying securing waterways is very important to avoid threats from hostage-taking and kidnapping.
Widodo said that he also discussed with his Philippine counterpart on several matters, including fostering partnership between State-owned enterprises of the two sides in trade, infrastructure development, strategic industry, border cooperation, maritime border security safeguarding, and how to strengthen ASEAN’s centrality and unity.
Jakarta hopes ASEAN to continue to be a pioneer in maintaining stability, peace and prosperity in the region, he emphasised.
President Marcos, for his part, said that Indonesia is one of the Philippines’ closest neighbours and partners. The two sides plan to form task forces at the technical level to expand bilateral ties in multiple areas, contributing to the regional peace and development./.
VNA
