The International Conference on Deradicalisation and Countering Violent Extremism 2016 (IDC 2016) is taking place in the Malaysian capital city on January 25 and 26. It drew officials and scholars from the ASEAN member nations and nine strategic partners of Malaysia: Australia, France, Italy, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the US.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the IDC 2016 aims to enhance co-operation among all countries and information sharing among security agencies to deal with all forms of terrorist attacks, especially suicide bombings which are a growing threat.
He said he hopes co-operation, and information and experience sharing at the IDC 2016 will be continued in the following years.
Meanwhile, Malaysian PM Najib Razak underlined threats from the so-called Islamic State to his country and vowed to prevent terrorism and violent extremism from entering Malaysia.
At the conference, participants discussed the situation, challenges and measures to prevent violent extremism, along with countries’ co-operation in this field.
Deputy Minister Pham Dung, who led the Vietnamese delegation, asked ASEAN nations to tighten collaboration among their law enforcement bodies, to control and prevent sponsorship and websites that incite or popularise violent extremism and terrorism.
They should co-ordinate closely to manage entry and exit, solve migration-related issues, build communication channels, and perfect bilateral and multilateral co-operation mechanisms in radicalisation and prevention and combat of violent extremism .
The countries also need to hold regular regional and international forums to update information and boost co-operation while supporting one another to improve the capacity for coping with the problem, he noted.