Indonesia, Sri Lanka joint efforts to tackle human smuggling

 Indonesian and Sri Lankan foreign ministers met here on Monday, discussing ways to stepup efforts in addressing human smuggling issue and boosting bilateral trade, which is targeted to reach one billion U.S. dollars next year.
Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa met with his Sri Lankan counterpart Gamini Lakhsman Peiris at Marty's office.
The Indonesian minister said Indonesia and Sri Lanka have similar problem related to the issue as the two nations consistently send workers to foreign countries.
Marty said both nations are actively working in international forum of Bali Process that addressing the issue.
According to Marty, it takes further cooperation and agreements with other countries which have similar problem such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, India and Australia.
Indonesia has been a stopover for illegal movement of people from South Asia, Middle East countries, which are aiming to enter Australia to seek better life there after they fled from their war- torn countries.
Besides discussing ways to address the human smuggling issue, the two ministers also discussed ways to improve further cooperation in economy, trade, investment, farming, fishing and tourism.
"We agreed to spur this effort so as to boost up this good relationship to an even better condition," Marty said, adding that with all of those improvements, bilateral trade between the two nations is expected to reach one billion U.S. dollars next year.
In his statement conveyed in the event, Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said improvement of ties with Indonesia would give significant benefits to his country in terms of economy, politics and development of human resources and health services.