ASEAN adopts 10-year action plan to combat transnational crime

According to Malaysia’s Home Ministry, the adoption reflects ASEAN’s collective commitment to keeping pace with an increasingly complex threat landscape and further strengthening regional cooperation.

The meeting also approved the establishment of an ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC) Working Group on Anti-Money Laundering as a new platform to enhance regional efforts against financial crime. In addition, the ASEAN Border Management Cooperation Roadmap was adopted to streamline inter-agency coordination on immigration and border control, the ministry said in a statement.

Delegates agreed to support Viet Nam’s initiative to adopt an ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on enhancing the effectiveness of tracking fugitives at the 47th ASEAN Summit, scheduled to take place in Malaysia in this October.

Several important documents were released, including the Melaka Declaration on Combating Transnational Crime and ASEAN statements on countering people smuggling, cybercrime, and online fraud; combating money laundering; and strengthening cooperation in apprehending fugitives.

The meeting also agreed to extend a number of action plans to counter extremism and coordinate cross-border and cross-sectoral measures to address the threat of violent extremism in the region.

The joint statement stressed that AMMTC not only reviewed achievements of the past decade but also opened a more comprehensive new chapter, underscoring ASEAN’s determination to remain at the forefront of the fight against increasingly sophisticated transnational crime.

Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Minister of Public Security General Luong Tam Quang noted that in the context of extensive globalisation and integration, transnational crime remains a major challenge for all countries, including Viet Nam. He proposed four measures to enhance regional cooperation, which were welcomed by other member states.

These include actively sharing information and identifying new criminal methods; building mechanisms for joint investigations and operations; strengthening cooperation in applying science and technology in crime prevention; and developing a shared ASEAN database to support judicial assistance, extradition, and transfer of sentenced persons.

On the sidelines of the event, Minister Quang held meetings with Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Vice Minister of Justice of the Republic of Korea Lee Jin Soo, and Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Wang Zhizhong, and to discuss future cooperation in crime prevention and control.

Following the meeting, Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the two sides focused on boosting security cooperation under the cross-border Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Malaysia and Viet Nam, particularly in cybersecurity. Malaysia is also in the process of acceding to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and will officially sign the UN Convention against Cybercrime in Ha Noi this October.