Paris Terror Spurs RI-Canada Security Dialogue amidst G20 Summit

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Indonesia and Canada have successfully maintained more than six decades long relationship with bilateral deals and furthering dialogues centered mostly on human rights protection, religious freedom, democratic governance and pluralism. Decade after decade, new issues and initiatives have drawn the two much closer with the current emphasis placed predominantly upon the issue of terrorism and preventive measure against its rampant widespread.

The recent conduction of simultaneous deadly attacks in Paris which has led to the identified death toll of 129 people on the night of November 13 2015 serves as a gentle Jeminder for countries all around the world to revisit its security policies and surely for Indonesia and Canada to make furtherance and intensify cooperation specifically designed to contain and eradicate the actors, the influence and the teachings of terrorist networks.

It may be seen as an ironic turn of event as just two days following the attacks, the G20 summit began with the host country being Turkey. Both Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo and recently elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took some time to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya to discuss various issues and followed by examination on potential sectors to be collaborated with between the two nations. The two also did not forget to express grief and condolences over recent catastrophe in Paris and for those who have lost their loved ones due to act of terrorism. Such situation inevitably led to the agreement of cooperation between the two nations in various security- related sectors.

“We want to develop stronger cooperation between Indonesia and Canada,” Member of Presidential Communication team, Ari Dwipayana shared on November 15 2015.

“In the field of transnational organized crime prevention and control, the two leaders have agreed to focus their cooperation on efforts to eradicate terrorism, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and drug smuggling,” she continued.

Despite the fact that the security relation has been established since 2014 through Indonesia’s participation in Canada’s military training cooperation program (MTCP), the recent terror to a large extent prompts the need to intensify such military drill and therefore other relevant undertaking such as interfaith dialogue such as the one held between Indonesia and Italy was also taken into serious consideration.

This is because, even if the warmongers behind the attacks in Paris still highly debated, it remains an issue to have very lacking religious tolerance in a country as it may spark people to people conflict especially to those with differing background.

Apart from talking about security affairs, economic sector was widely talked baout with President Jokowi requesting fot Canada to lower barriers of allow market accesses of Indonesia's rubber, paper, furniture, electronics, footwear, coffee and tea. (Akp/Rie)