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Jakarta. The Indonesian Military says it is ready to back the police in their recently intensified counterterrorism campaign.

Since 1999, the TNI has been banned from participating directly in antiterrorism efforts but can provide support such as intelligence to Densus 88, the National Police’s elite counterterrorism unit.

Before the ban, the army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) spearheaded the national counterterrorism campaign.

“If we look at the latest developments in terms of terrorism, there is a serious problem as stated by the chief of the National Police,” Kopassus commander Maj. Gen. Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus said on Tuesday during a joint training exercise with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment.

“Thus we need to work together.” It is up to the president to decide if the cooperation will resume.

Counterterrorism efforts are being directed to catching an armed gang that recently killed three officers at a police post in North Sumatra.

The group is believed to be part of a militant training camp in neighboring Aceh province that funded itself partly through a series of deadly bank robberies across Sumatra.

Paulus said that in light of the escalation of the group’s activities, the TNI should be trained in counterterrorism efforts. “That way, we’ll be ready to help the National Police when they require it,” he said.

He said the joint exercise with the Australian special forces, the 18th in a series to strengthen ties between the two countries’ armed forces, also dealt with tackling terrorism.

Australia channels millions of dollars each year to Densus 88 in the form of equipment and personnel training.

Maj. Gen. Tim McOwan, the special operations commander for the Australian armed forces, said Canberra had a special interest in the training exercises.

“Many of our citizens were victims of the [2002 and 2005] Bali bombings,” he said “Terrorism is a threat in Southeast Asia, so there should be collaboration.”

McOwan said Kopassus was “the best elite military unit in Southeast Asia” and a “good asset” for the TNI and Indonesia.

He also said he wanted to strengthen cooperation with Kopassus, which he said had proven its effectiveness in tackling regional terror threats.

Tuesday’s exercise took place at Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport, one of the country’s busiest international gateways, and featured 50 Kopassus and 20 Australian personnel, as well as 230 soldiers from the local Udayana Military Command and employees of airport operator Angkasa Pura I.

The drill enacted a possible terrorist takeover of the airport and the TNI’s response to it, and was successfully concluded in five minutes.

Airport general manager Heru Legowo said the drill did not disrupt flights and passengers watched from a safe distance.