| Subject: Indonesia-Australia Security Deal
Looms
Received from Joyo Indonesian News
also: SMH: Canberra-Jakarta treaty talk signals
detente after East Timor crisis; Age: Jakarta
Plan Australia's Key to Asia
The Age (Melbourne) Saturday, March 19, 2005
Indonesia Security Deal Looms
By Mark Forbes Foreign affairs correspondent
Australia agrees to shun independence movements as part of a new
alliance with Jakarta.
Canberra
Australia and Indonesia are poised to sign a ground-breaking security
treaty this year.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday that as part of the
treaty, Australia was prepared to formally recognise Indonesia's
territorial integrity and oppose any independence movements.
He said Indonesia would develop new confidence in Australia knowing
that its neighbour supported its territorial integrity.
The foreign ministers of both countries yesterday backed a treaty, with
broad details likely to be endorsed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and Prime Minister John Howard when they meet in Canberra in a
fortnight.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda predicted the new alliance
would be much broader than the security treaty secretly negotiated by Paul
Keating while he was prime minister in 1995. That treaty was torn up after
Australia's 1999 intervention in East Timor.
Aside from strengthening military ties and including a non-aggression
pact, Dr Wirajuda said the treaty could encompass police links and
counter-terrorism and anti-crime measures.
The move symbolises a dramatic recovery in the Australian-Indonesian
relationship following the East Timor crisis, assisted by the joint
investigation into the Bali bombing.
Mr Downer said the treaty could be finalised within months.
Dr Wirajuda said serious work on the pact could begin once Mr Howard
and Dr Yudhoyono endorsed the concept.
"The 1995 security treaty between Indonesia and Australia was very
limited in its contents," he said. "What we are contemplating is
a new agreement with much broader areas of co-operation."
Dr Wirajuda said any agreement must include a commitment to the
peaceful resolution of any issues between both nations, rejecting the use
of force.
Indonesia is eager for a non-aggression pact to override any threat
from the Howard Government of resorting to pre-emptive strikes to defend
Australia.
Mr Downer said the principles of territorial unity and peaceful
resolution "sound fine".
He said he did not want a "defence pact like the ANZUS
alliance", but a framework agreement that would bring together
different aspects of the security relationship.
At a ministerial forum between Australia and Indonesia yesterday,
Australia rejected pressure to withdraw its travel advisory recommending
against visits to Indonesia.
Suggestions that Australia should free up entry requirements for
Indonesians were also rebuffed. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said
Australia would stick with its current visa system which ensured the
country knew who was coming before they arrived.
Australia also provided an extra $7 million to strengthen Indonesia's
democratic and anti-corruption programs.
---------------------------
The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday, March 19, 2005
Treaty talk signals detente after East Timor crisis
By Tom Allard
The Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Indonesian President, Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, are expected to begin formal talks towards a joint
security pact when they meet in Canberra in two weeks.
Foreign Affairs officials have begun work towards a treaty that would
provide guarantees to respect the "territorial integrity" of
each nation. But the treaty would not require the countries to consult
before military action, or go to each other's aid in the case of an
invasion, said the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer.
Mr Downer said Australia would not support secessionist movements in
Indonesia.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, said in Canberra
yesterday he sought a more comprehensive treaty than the ill-fated pact
signed by the former prime minister Paul Keating and the former Indonesian
president Soeharto in 1995. It would have a strong counter-terrorism
focus, he said. "We are contemplating a new agreement with much
broader areas of co-operation [than the 1995 pact]," Mr Wirajuda
said. "[It] would cover traditional and non-traditional security
issues."
Principles guaranteeing territorial sovereignty and guidelines on how
to resolve any disputes peacefully could also be part of the treaty, he
said.
After the forum in Canberra, Mr Wirajuda said the next step was for Mr
Howard and Dr Yudhoyono "to endorse the idea and instruct the two
ministers to go together with an agreement".
Dr Yudhoyono has expressed lukewarm feelings for the idea in the past.
But considering the work officials have done, formal talks are likely to
go ahead.
That would be a sharp turnaround in relations between the countries
since the East Timor crisis, when Australia led a United Nations effort to
quell pro-Jakarta violence.
Other discussions at the forum included Indonesia's concern over
Australia's tough travel advisories. Mr Downer said he would not budge
from the assessments after the Bali, Marriott Hotel and Australian embassy
bombings.
The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, also heard complaints
Australia was slow in processing visa applications. And Indonesia's Co-ordinating
Minister for the Economy, Aburizal Bakrie, told the forum closer economic
and political links required more personal contacts.
Australia said it would give $5 million to assist local and regional
elections in Indonesia, and an extra $2 million to fight money laundering.
--------------------------
The Age (Melbourne) Monday, March 21, 2005
Exclusive
Jakarta Plan Australia's Key to Asia
Indonesia's Foreign Minister pledges to help Australia become a member
of a powerful new regional grouping.
By Mark Forbes Foreign affairs correspondent
photo: Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirjuda: "Being a close
neighbour Indonesia can play a good bridge for Australia's relations with
others, with the region." Chris Lane
Australia should become part of Asia and a proposed security treaty
with Indonesia could be a symbol for integration with the region,
according to Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda.
In an exclusive interview with The Age, Dr Wirajuda said deepening and
expanding ties with Indonesia could see his nation become a
"bridge" into the region for Australia. He vowed to try to
overturn resistance to Australia joining a new East Asian Summit.
Last week Malaysia said Australia should not be invited to the summit -
an expanded ASEAN that could form the region's major international forum -
which will hold an inaugural meeting in Kuala Lumpur in December.
Dr Wirajuda said he would argue against the exclusion at a meeting of
ASEAN foreign ministers next month.
To forge a groundbreaking security treaty, Dr Wirajuda indicated
Indonesia would not insist on Australia abandoning controversial
restrictions on training with some of Indonesia's feared Kopassus troops,
stating a gradual approach to closer military ties would be acceptable.
After talks on Friday with his Australian counterpart, Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer, both said a new security treaty could be endorsed in
principle by Prime Minister John Howard and President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono during his visit to Canberra in a fortnight, and could be
finalised by the end of the year.
Excited and fearful of the domestic reaction to a security treaty only
six years after the spectre of open conflict between Australia and
Indonesia during the East Timor crisis, Dr Wirajuda said Australian
military assistance in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province had provided a
psychological breakthrough in its once-fraught relationship with the
Indonesian army.
Forging a new security pact would provide a symbolic gesture for
"others to see that Australia is part of the region", Dr
Wirajuda said.
The agreement could provide a "comprehensive framework" for
expanded and deeper co-operation.
A new agreement would be broader than the security pact secretly
negotiated by then prime minister Paul Keating in 1995 and abandoned
during the East Timor crisis, Dr Wirajuda said.
"We are talking about broader security co-operation, not just in
the pure military sense but including traditional and non-traditional
security issues, such as transnational crime and people smuggling,"
he said.
Any agreement would need to reject the use of force and resolve
disputes peacefully, he said. Detailed talks were yet to begin, but an
agreement this year was "within reach".
Dr Wirajuda said the proposed East Asian Summit should be inclusive,
"not limited to those 13 in ASEAN plus three (China, Japan and Korea)
but also include Australia, India and New Zealand".
The summit could become the key regional body, including the emerging
superpower, China.
Australia is eager to be involved in the summit after failing to gain
an invitation to be an ASEAN partner.
Dr Wirajuda said it was important Australia saw itself as part of Asia,
and was seen as a genuine member of the region.
Mr Downer last night welcomed Dr Wirajuda's comments. "We work
very closely together on issues like the East Asian Summit and Australia
greatly appreciates Indonesia's support," he said.
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