Australia PM Albanese to meet Indonesia counterpart in first international visit since re-election
By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet with Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday to discuss defence cooperation and global trade, after arriving in Jakarta on his first international visit since his re-election.
Albanese, sworn into office on Tuesday after his centre-left Labor party won an increased majority in parliament, said his visit showed the priority Canberra placed on defence and economic ties with Jakarta.
"Indonesia is a critical relationship for Australia, this major neighbour just to our north that will grow to be the fifth largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade," Albanese said in a radio interview in Perth on Wednesday.
Substantial progress had been made on defence and maritime cooperation, he said, referring to a defence cooperation treaty signed last year.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst for defence, Euan Graham, said the Australia-Indonesia relationship has "avoided serious crisis for more than a decade, cooperation continues to move forward incrementally and there is greater stability than before".
Yet wide differences remain, he added.
"Jakarta sees China and Russia as vectors of opportunity more than threats and views the U.S. and China primarily through the same lens of great power rivalry. That's largely at odds with Canberra's world view," he said.
Indonesia dismissed reports last month that Russia had requested to base military aircraft in the archipelago's easternmost province of Papua, about 1,200 km (750 miles) north of the Australian city of Darwin, where a U.S. Marine Corps rotational force is based for six months of the year.
Albanese said the two leaders will also discuss global trade.
Australia wants to increase economic ties with Southeast Asia, as it seeks to diversify export markets to reduce reliance on China, and in response to trade uncertainty caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Indonesia remains a "protected and challenging market" and a competitor to Australia in commodity exports, said Graham.
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