Australia and Indonesia Announce New Security Treaty

Source: Reuters | Editor: Yudho Winarto

POLITIC - SYDNEY/JAKARTA. Australia and Indonesia have agreed on a new security treaty that commits them to consult each other if either country is threatened, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in Sydney on Wednesday with Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto.

Albanese, who accompanied Prabowo on a visit to an Australian naval base in the city, said the treaty was a major extension of previous security deals, and commits to regular security dialogue between leaders.

"If either or both countries' security is threatened, to consult and consider what measures may be taken either individually or jointly to deal with those threats," he said.

Indonesia and Australia recognised that acting together was the best way to secure peace and stability in the region, he added.

Prabowo told reporters that the treaty committed to close cooperation between the neighbours in defence and security fields.

"Our determination is to maintain the best of relationships in order to enhance and guarantee security for both of our countries," he said.

Indonesia has a non-aligned foreign policy, pledging to befriend any country without joining any military bloc.

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement the treaty was expected to be signed next year. It was modelled on a 1995 security agreement between the two countries, she added.

The 1995 deal was withdrawn in 1999, after Australia led a United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor, which was plunged into violence as it sought independence from Indonesia.

Once tense security ties have warmed under the centre-left Labor government of Anthony Albanese, who visited Jakarta in his first international visit after being re-elected in May.

Australia has recently sought to boost defence ties with its neighbours, striking a mutual defence treaty with Papua New Guinea to its north last month.

Unlike the PNG treaty, the Indonesia agreement does not commit to acting to meet common danger, said Euan Graham, a senior analyst for defence strategy at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

"Cynics could say it doesn't really commit in any hard sense, it is more about raising the political symbolism of the relationship," he said.

Albanese could show he had put the Indonesia relationship back on track, while for Prabowo it was "classic balancing behaviour", showing he was keeping Australia happy if concerns were raised that Indonesia was tilting too much towards Russia or China, he added.