MANILA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia had agreed to enhance defense cooperation to curb rising piracy, smuggling and other criminal activities in the Sulu Sea, the border area common to the three Southeast Asian countries, a government statement said Sunday.
The Philippine National Defense Department said in a statement Sunday that the agreement to have a "coordinated patrol" was reached during a meeting of Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu at the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, Laos on Thursday.
The three ministers also agreed "to pursue joint training, with Indonesia proposing to have joint exercises at least twice a year" among the three countries, the statement read.
"They agreed to ensure timely sharing of relevant information and to this end direct their respective intelligence units to be more open in sharing databases of criminals," it said.
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