9 February 2015: Indonesia and the Philippines reinforced their commitments to cooperate on maritime affairs, including addressing marine conservation and combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Both countries are members of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF).

The President of the Philippines, Benigno S. Aquino III, and the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, discussed maritime issues during President Widodo’s visit to the Philippines from 8-9 February 2015. Noting that both countries are two of the world’s largest archipelagic states and among the top five countries with the longest coastlines, as well as parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the CTI-CFF, President Aquino said that “closer cooperation and coordination between our two countries in maritime affairs is vital.” He said both sides agreed to increase coordination on a number of maritime issues, including on improving approaches to “maritime boundary delimitation, border cooperation and cooperation in combating IUU fishing under the scope of the Philippine-Indonesia Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC).”

President Aquino signed the CTI-CFF instrument of ratification for the Agreement on the Establishment of the Regional Secretariat of the CTI-CFF on 24 November 2014. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste have also completed the process of ratifying the agreement. Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that his government transmitted its instrument of ratification to the Agreement on 8 January 2015. [CTI-CFF Press Release] [President Aquino Statement] [CTI-CFF Press Release on Ratification]