The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Russia will further boost cooperation in countering terrorist financing via travel restriction for citizens of these two nations to Middle East.
In a joint statement in conjunction with the ASEAN-Russia ministerial meeting held in Manila, the Philippines, ASEAN foreign affairs ministers are committed to countering the growing spread of violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism as well as terrorist propaganda.
This includes the use of the internet and social media for terrorism-related purposes as well as acts of public justification of terrorism intended to incite terrorist acts.
ASEAN and Russia both committed to contribute to the development and implementation of comprehensive strategies to prevent and counter the spread of terrorism as well as terrorist propaganda, tailored specifically to respective national contexts and in accordance with the obligations under international law and the domestic laws of the respective states.
“We will boost cooperation to counter travel of the Russians and ASEAN member states’ citizens to the conflict zones in the Middle East with a view to joining terrorist groups, as well as to deal with the return of foreign terrorist fighters, posing challenges to our security and stability,” the statement said.
“We believe that effective measures on countering international terrorism require reliable blocking of its financing, in full compliance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendation,” it added.
The statement acknowledged the need to explore establishing channels of communication between ASEAN and Russia’s competent agencies to facilitate exchange of information and intelligence to counter the spread of ideologies which encourage terrorism and to prevent the commission of terrorist-related offences, as defined by existing international conventions and treaties.
“We are determined to consistently strengthen ASEAN-Russia cooperation in countering international terrorism. In this regard, we fully support the capacity building training courses conducted by Russia on a regular basis for the law enforcement officers of the ASEAN member states,” it added.