THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WORLD ASIA
Indonesian, Philippine Leaders Agree Tougher Line on Piracy, Islamist Extremism
Two nations sign agreement to strengthen cooperation on maritime security in Sulu Sea
PHOTO: Setkab.go.id
By SARA SCHONHARDT and ANITA RACHMAN
Sept. 9, 2016 11:02 a.m. ET
JAKARTA, Indonesia—Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Indonesia’s Joko Widodo on Friday agreed to work more closely to tackle Islamist extremism and crimes at sea, while also bolstering maritime security in a region struggling to fight piracy.
The two leaders, noted for their tough approach to drug offenders, signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation on maritime security in the Sulu Sea separating the two archipelagoes.
Mr. Duterte said he supported allowing Indonesian forces pursuing suspected pirates to enter Philippine waters but, for now, coordination would be the priority.
Speaking to members of the Filipino community before his meeting with Mr. Widodo, Mr. Duterte said if Indonesian forces were in hot pursuit of pirates, they could enter Philippine waters and “blast them off.”
The two countries, along with Malaysia, have been shaping plans for joint patrols and discussing ways to enable pursuits into each other’s territorial waters in a bid to stop a surge in piracy and abductions this year. The Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippine has been particularly active, kidnapping Indonesian sailors and other targets and demanding large ransom payments to help fund its campaign against the Philippine government. In recent months the group has executed two Canadian hostages and is holding a Norwegian citizen.
Mr. Duterte, 71 years old, has taken a hard line against Abu Sayyaf, which has declared loyalty to Islamic State and was seeded by al Qaeda in the 1990s. Security analysts have said the Islamist threat, along with the piracy problem in the waters between the two countries, has begun to affect trade. Some coal shipments between Indonesia and the Philippines were suspended following a spree of kidnappings earlier this year.
After a rocky international debut, where his habit of lacing statements with profanity caused U.S. President Barack Obama to cancel a planned meeting, Mr. Duterte received a warm welcome in Jakarta. Speaking before hundreds of members of the large Filipino diaspora at the Shangri-La hotel in Jakarta, he bluntly defended his war on drugs that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since he took office in June, distributing booklets detailing the extent of the problem.
Mr. Duterte also said remarks he made before a regional summit in Laos, in which he appeared to utter an expletive toward Mr. Obama while vowing to push back against any criticism of his antidrug campaign, was misinterpreted and not directed at the U.S. president. “I never made that statement, you can check it out,” he said.
Mr. Widodo called the summit in Laos, which concluded Thursday and included leaders from the U.S., Japan and a range of Asian countries, a success and described Mr. Duterte’s role as “very important.”
Both men have taken a hard-line approach to the drug trade, and executions of convicted drug traffickers have become more frequent under Mr. Widodo’s presidency.
Mr. Duterte avoided commenting publicly on the case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino national who is on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking.
When asked whether he spoke with Mr. Widodo about the two countries’ policies toward drug offenders, the Philippine president said he would respect Indonesia’s judicial process.
Write to Sara Schonhardt at Sara.Schonhardt@wsj.com and Anita Rachman at anita.rachman@wsj.com
http://www.wsj.com/articles/indonesian-philippine-leaders-agree-tougher-line-on-piracy-islamist-extremism-1473433334
