PM visits Indonesia to cement ties

Australia Broadcast Center

15-05-2025

Andy Park: Anthony Albanese has continued the prime ministerial tradition of making the first post-election bilateral visit to Indonesia. Defence and security cooperation will be a key priority on this visit, particularly in the wake of the Chinese Navy's partial circumnavigation of Australia and the vast strategic uncertainties ushered in by Donald Trump. Indonesia correspondent Bill Bertels is in Jakarta and he joined me a short time ago. Bill, it was a bit of a case of room service diplomacy last night, the Indonesian PM stopping by our own PM's hotel room for an informal chat. The mission to, quote, strengthen ties with Indonesia is quite a broad one. What's the more specific purpose of this visit?
Bill Birtles: Yeah, Andy, Anthony Albanese this morning stressing the depth of the relationship and stressing economic and security ties, but he was pretty short on concrete details of what sort of agreements might come out of this formal meeting that he's about to do with President Prabowo Subianto. He did say last night it was an honour for the Indonesian President to swing by his hotel room. It must be a pretty big room because he said the President brought representatives of more than two dozen political parties with him. So, we assume it was actually quite a large meeting, but Anthony Albanese said it was an informal chat. He said it was a wide-ranging discussion and he has emphasised that Indonesia will be the world's fifth largest economy by the end of next decade. So, he wants to look for ways to probably increase Australian investment in Indonesia. That's always been a bit of a lagging issue because a lot of Australian businesses are reluctant to put their money here, seen as a bit risky. But the other thing is he said they will be talking about enhancing the security relationship between the two countries and that of course came into focus recently with the news during the election campaign that Russia had reportedly asked the Indonesians to base some of their long-range planes at a base in Papua, north of Australia.
Anthony Albanese: Russia of course will try to increase its influence. We make very clear our position when it comes to Russia around the world, be it the brutal invasion of Ukraine, its interference in cyber security issues as well, its tolerance of criminal organisations that have been involved in that are anathema to our values. We'll continue to stand up for Australian values and that is something that we'll do both domestically but right around the world.
Andy Park: And Bill, the idea that Indonesia matters to Australia as much as Australia matters to Indonesia, where do you think we sit on the Indonesian consciousness when it comes to geopolitical importance?
Bill Birtles: Look Andy, to be honest, it's a bit like Australia in the sense that in Asia the focus is very much on China. Of course we look at Indonesia as our big neighbour but Indonesia has many neighbours. Singapore for example is small but it is an absolute powerhouse of investment in this region and so they often pay a great deal of attention to what's happening there, the relationship with Singapore, with China. Of course Indonesia is often seeking investment and with the US there's a preoccupation simply because this country, like many countries, is facing the threat of a large tariff from the Trump administration unless they can do a deal. So I don't think that Australia takes up a huge amount of space in Indonesia's political discourse. However, compared to years prior when there were various tensions about detained Australians in Bali or the threat of terrorism or of course asylum and migrant boats, these days the relationship is remarkably stable and Anthony Albanese described it as the most important relationship and you can see that he's only spending one day here but he's still decided that this had to be the first visit of his second term.
Andy Park: Indonesia correspondent Bill Bertels in Jakarta, thank you so much.
Bill Birtles: Thanks Andy.