(Feb 6): Australia and Indonesia’s leaders signed a security deal on Friday, one of a series of agreements that Canberra has secured with neighbouring countries to reinforce ties and limit China’s influence in the region.
At a signing ceremony, President Prabowo Subianto told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that “this agreement reflects the determination of both countries to work closely in safeguarding national security and to make a tangible contribution to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”
“For Indonesia, this represents a firm commitment to the principle of good neighbourliness and to our free and active foreign policy,” Prabowo said.
Albanese replied that there was no more important nation for Australia than Indonesia, and that the “treaty reflects the close friendship, partnership and deep trust between our two nations.”
Australia’s centre-left government has signed a series of defence, police and aid deals across the Pacific region since taking office in 2022, attempting to boost its influence and to try and limit that of China. The effort has intensified under the Trump administration as the US leans on allies to take up more of the burden in deterring Beijing’s growing military power.
Late last year, Australia concluded a security deal with Papua New Guinea, which sits north of Australia and east of Indonesia, and Albanese visited Timor-Leste late last month, signing a new agreement to provide various kinds of aid and support. In addition to the new security arrangements, Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara will explore co-investments in Australia, according to a joint statement, with both nations looking to invest in each other’s critical mineral industries.
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“The government can be very pleased with the agreements it signed across the Pacific,” said Sam Roggeveen, director of the security programme at the Lowy Institute, a think tank. “Indonesia is in a different category because of its size and also because of this historic commitment to non-alignment,” he said, referring to the country’s efforts to seek a middle path in the Cold War.
The deal is largely based on an agreement signed by then-Prime Minister Paul Keating and Indonesia’s then-leader Suharto 30 years ago that Jakarta abrogated following East Timor’s vote for independence from Indonesia. It also builds on a 2006 Lombok treaty between the two nations, Albanese said last year when talks concluded.
Ties between Indonesia and Australia have shifted from high tensions during the Cold War and following the fall of Suharto to relatively warmer relations in recent years. Jakarta has long sought to balance its foreign policy by maintaining cordial ties with Western nations as well as other developing countries.
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Roggeveen highlighted that Indonesia is likely to become a regional power as its economy and population continue to grow, and the agreement can help to ensure good relations as its economy surpasses Australia’s.
Canberra is signalling “that Indonesia is equally important to Australia’s security as the United States,” he said.
“Indonesia’s interests and China’s ambitions in Southeast Asia are going to clash more and more directly over time,” Roggeveen said, noting that the two nations already have disagreements over the South China Sea.
“As China’s maritime power grows and as its ambitions grow in Southeast Asia, then I think Indonesia increasingly faces a choice of either accommodating China or resisting those ambitions,” and this deal with Australia would help it bolster its defence capabilities, he added.
Uploaded by Evelyn Chan
