China, Indonesia to enhance anti-drug cooperation

JAKARTA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- senior officials of Chinese and Indonesian anti-drug agencies met here Wednesday to discuss ways to enhance cooperation to fight against drug trafficking.

The meeting is a follow-up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on anti-drug cooperation signed by the two countries in March 2012.

"The cooperation between China and Indonesia is very essential to prevent the trafficking of illegal drugs into the respective countries," Lan Weihong, deputy secretary-general of China National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC), told a joint press conference.

Lan said both sides discussed issues such as the establishment of an annual meeting mechanism, the liaison hotline, intelligence information exchange, law enforcement cooperation and cracking down on drug trafficking in the sea as well as from the air, drug profiling, equipment assistance and capacity building programs.

Deputy for Legal Affairs and Cooperation of the Indonesian National Narcotics agency (BNN) Arief Wicaksono Sudiutomo said that BNN and NNCC officials already held a meeting in Beijing in August last year.

The meeting was part of the mandates mentioned in the MoU to hold rotating periodical meetings between anti-narcotics officials of both countries, he said.

"Most of those drugs were crystal meth smuggled through golden triangle area that covers Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia," he added.

The NNCC delegation's visit to Indonesia will last till Saturday.

Besides holding a meeting with BNN, the NNCC delegation is also scheduled to visit the Indonesian Foreign Ministry and other related authorities.