Turkey and Indonesia to cooperate on intelligence sharing

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Ankara on Thursday and discussed strengthening anti-terror cooperation.

"As leaders closely following global developments, we know this fact very well that the Asia Pacific region's efficiency is growing day by day. Asian countries are becoming more influential in the global economy and trade," Erdogan said, speaking about Indonesia-Turkey relations.

Erdogan said regional issues and latest developments in Qatar also came under discussion during his meeting with Widodo.

"We had the opportunity to discuss mutual steps that can be taken to combat terrorism in the world," he said.

"We are entering a critical period in which we need to be much more careful and maximise intelligence sharing. We have to prevent Daesh terrorists driven from the territories they occupied from entering our country or other target countries."

Widodo highlighted that Indonesia and Turkey have enormous potential for cooperation.

"We have decided to strengthen Indonesia-Turkey anti-terror security cooperation. We would like to do so by sharing intelligence."

"We have already been cooperating in fields of aviation, maritime and energy," he added.

Widodo also said they had agreed to cooperate in manufacturing submarines and drones, along with floating power plants to meet Indonesia's needs for electricity.

The two leaders also attended the signing ceremonies including Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Turkey and Indonesia.

Erdogan said he would attend the G20 summit to be held in Germany on Friday along with the Indonesian president.

Turkey deports terror suspects

Turkey has deported 5,000 suspected terrorists and banned another 53,000 from travelling to Turkey, Erdogan said at the press conference.

"More than 3,000 Daesh terrorists, including the heads, were neutralised in Operation Euphrates Shield," Erdogan added.

Turkey launched the military operation in Syria last August by sending in troops, tanks and warplanes to help the Free Syrian Army (FSA) push Daesh away from its border and stop the advance of the YPG militia which is considered by Ankara to be allied with local terror outfit PKK.

The operation led to Turkey clearing its borders of Daesh and allowing 100,000 Syrians to return to their country, Erdogan said.