JAIF Support for Combating Transnational Crimes

Background

Transnational crimes in general, and terrorism in particular, undeniably pose enormous threats to the peace, stability, and economic prosperities of nations. Despite the overall fall in the impact of terrorism in most regions, it remains a significant and serious problem in many countries.

At the same time, as technologies continue to be integrated into daily life, cybercrime has become one of the defining issues in ASEAN. According to the INTERPOL’s ASEAN Cyberthreat Assessment 2021 report, the region will face cybercrime trend that is set to rise exponentially in the future. As the threat of terrorism, including the rise of radicalisation and violent extremism, and cybercrime continue to evolve, collective responses through regional platforms and cross-border cooperation need to be strengthened.

Source: Institute for Economics & Peace. Global Terrorism Index 2020: Measuring the Impact of Terrorism, Sydney, November 2020 (p.31). Available from: https://visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GTI-2020-web-1.pdf (accessed 15 December 2020).

Japan has been a long-standing partner of ASEAN in combating transnational crimes, in particular terrorism and cybercrime. Japan and ASEAN have reaffirmed “the importance of having a framework for cooperation to prevent, disrupt, and combat international terrorism through information exchange, intelligence sharing, and capacity-building” through the adoption of the ASEAN-Japan Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism in 2004 and the ASEAN-Japan Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat Terrorism and Transnational Crime in 2014.

Areas of Support and
Key Contributions

ASEAN and Japan’s adoption of the Joint Declarations in 2004 and 2014 provided the impetus for intensifying cooperation in combating transnational crime in the region as well as regularly convening dialogues: ASEAN-Japan Counter-Terrorism (AJCT) Dialogue since 2006 and ASEAN-Japan Cybercrime (AJCC) Dialogue since 2014. These two (2) Dialogues serve as the platforms for ASEAN and Japan to discuss and enhance cooperation related to the efforts to address terrorism and cybercrime in the region.

In streamlining activities under the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC)-Japan framework, the SOMTC-Japan Work Plan for Cooperation to Combat Terrorism and Transnational Crime (2015-2017) was first developed and adopted in 2015. The successor SOMTC-Japan Work Plan for Cooperation to Combat Terrorism and Transnational Crime (2018-2022)² was then adopted in 2018. Following the conclusion of the Work Plan, SOMTC and Japan are developing a succeeding work plan covering comprehensive a number of areas of cooperation on transnational crime in ASEAN, to be supported by the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).

The following are completed and implemented projects as key contributions to the above initiatives to date.

JAIF continues to support next rounds of regional dialogues, including the 4^th ASEAN-Japan Cybercrime (AJCC) Dialogue and the 12^th ASEAN-Japan Counter-Terrorism (AJCT) Dialogue.

As of 30 November 2022

¹ According to the Global Terrorism Index 2020, the total number of deaths fell by 15.5 per cent for the fifth consecutive year in 2019.

² Development of the SOMTC-Japan Work Plan for Cooperation to Combat Terrorism and Transnational Crime (2018-2022) was supported by the Government of Japan through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).

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