Sydney — Australia and Indonesia have agreed to a new defense deal which will boost military cooperation between the two Indo-Pacific neighbors. The accord was negotiated Tuesday during a visit to Australia by Indonesia's incoming president, Prabowo Subianto.
The defense cooperation agreement will allow Australian and Indonesian militaries to operate from each other's countries.
The Canberra government says it is the "most significant" pact the two countries have ever signed.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra that his country shares the world's longest maritime boundary with Indonesia and already collaborate on security, people-trafficking and already collaborates on drug smuggling.
Albanese says the new accord will help to safeguard security in the Indo-Pacific region.
“It will be a vital plank for our two countries to support each other’s security, which is vital to both countries but also to the stability of the region that we share,” he said.
The accord is not a treaty, but does streamline and increase bilateral military cooperation.
Indonesia's incoming president, Prabowo Subianto, who assumes office later this year, told reporters Tuesday in Canberra that he was "determined" to continue the non-aligned foreign policy priorities of the incumbent President Joko Widodo.
Greg Fealy is emeritus professor of Indonesian Politics at the Australian National University. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the agreement appears to be far-reaching.
“Indonesia has been historically reluctant to enter into extensive military arrangements with other countries and, so, the fact that this appears to allow significant interoperability between the two armed forces that does look as if it is significant,” he said.
Specific details of the accord are expected to be revealed when the defense agreement is officially signed by Prabowo and the Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles in Jakarta later this month.
Relations between the two countries have not always been good. There was tension in the late 1990s and early 2000s over Australia’s support for East Timor’s independence from Indonesia.
President-elect Prabowo has also suggested that Australian investment in South-East Asia and Indonesia was still lagging, and declared he wanted to see stronger ties between the two nations.
