Moscow considering security office in RI

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Russia has expressed its interest in setting up a security bureau in Jakarta with the consent of the Indonesian government to help strengthen the efforts against terrorism, a Russian official said on Friday.

First Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Sergei Smirnov, who signed an information security agreement with Indonesian officials on Thursday, said he had discussed ways of combating terrorism with Chief of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Lt. Gen. (ret) A.M. Hendropriyono.

"Our countries have one and the same enemy: terrorism," he said.

During their meeting on Thursday, the two officials pinpointed the necessity of exchanging information between the security services of the two countries and cooperating in training personnel.

"I wish to propose the opening of a new permanent office of Federal Security Service in Indonesia to my superior (in Moscow)," he said.

"We also agreed to set up a direct telephone line between the chiefs of the intelligence agencies in Russia and Indonesia," he said without elaborating.

Indonesia and Russia are the latest victims of terrorist attacks.

Smirnov said that there were similarities between the attacks in Russia and the one outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, which killed nine and injured more than 180.

"We also have the same problems, terrorists in Russia have received education from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia," Smirnov said, explaining that Hendropriyono told him that he had received information that terrorists in Indonesia were trained from overseas, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Russia and Indonesia signed on Thursday an agreement on a mutual protection of classified information.

Under the agreement, the confidential information would allow Indonesia to obtain the technical manuals of military equipment it would buy from Russia, but not be allowed to provide them to third parties.

In the past, Indonesia was only allowed to send technicians to learn and undergo training in Russia to operate the equipment. But Russia did not allow the Indonesian officers to take manuals and training materials back home because these were considered to be classified information.

Indonesia spent US$192.6 million to buy four Russian-made Sukhoi jetfighters last year.