Australian PM Julia Gillard promises ongoing friendship

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard concluded her brief state visit to Indonesia on Tuesday, having met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta. A range of issues were discussed during their meeting, including bilateral cooperation, people smuggling and partnerships to tackle regional and global problems. The Jakarta Post’s Abdul Khalik had an opportunity to meet the new Australian leader. Below are excerpts from the interview:

Question: How would you describe relations between Australia and Indonesia?

Answer: It has been a long time that we have had good relations and have been good friends. I believe when your President came to Australia and spoke in our parliaments he put it in very good way that we have a strategic partnership and friendship. I am very personally committed as a prime minister to making sure that we continue to be friends in the future.

I think the partnership between our two countries is really broad one, across the area of economic cooperation and security cooperation, or cooperating on strategic and political matters and cooperating in regional and global forums. So, there is a great strain in our relationship.

Were there any concrete results from your discussion with the President?

As a result of our discussion today we have agreed to negotiate a comprehensive economic partnership between our two countries. Of course, we are already subject to and participate in ASEAN and the Australia and New Zealand free trade agreement, but we want more. It’s not just about more trade between our two countries, but also about more investment cooperation, more capacity building and support from Australia
to Indonesia. It’s a new partnership. So that is what has come out of the discussion today.

What also came out of today’s discussion was that I’ve indicated that Australia will commit a further A$500 million toward school education in Indonesia, to build 2,000 more schools, and to assist 1,500 Islamic schools to get up to the national standard.

Also, we’ve offered to provide additional resources to help recovery from natural disasters that have hit various parts of Indonesia in the last few weeks.

I’ve talked to the President about further cooperation on people smuggling and about working through an agreement on transferring prisoners between our two nations, making sure that justice is done, but we’ve also got a humanitarian perspective about dealing with individual cases.

What about tackling people smuggling?

We are having a discussion about the shared interest we have in addressing irregular people movement in the region. We’ve worked very closely with Indonesia on this issue, and we very much welcome that. President Yudhoyono indicated to me today that he supports Indonesia making people smuggling a crime, which we think is a very good way forward. And we’re going to continue to discuss this through the Bali Democracy process, which we jointly lead.

In regard to your plan to establish a regional center for asylum seekers, there is criticism that the center may actually attract more refugees to come rather than reducing their numbers. How do you see this?

The aim of the regional protection framework would be to say that keeping on moving doesn’t advantage people when it comes to having their claims [as refugees] considered. So, I actually think it will undercut what people smugglers are selling, and consequently it would deal withthe question of people smuggling in our region.

Would it be seen as too soft or weak, and attract more to come?

No, I certainly don’t agree with that. I think it would undercut the people-smuggling trade and that’s what we want to do, to make sure they don’t have a product they can sell, and they’re not trying to profit from people’s
desperation.

Did you raise the issue of [convicted Australian drug smuggler] Schapelle Corby with the President?

I did during the discussion today indicate to the President that the Australian government supports Ms. Corby’s clemency plea, and I was pleased that following the discussion the President made a statement about
attempting to work through this issue and prisoner transfer possibility.

How do you see Australia and Indonesia cooperating to resolve regional and global issues? For instance, will Australia stand side by side with Indonesia to push for a climate deal in Cancun [Mexico]?

I think there are various ways in which we can cooperate. Obviously, Australia seeks to directly support development work here in Indonesia and the region. So, $500 million for school education is a clear example of our commitment. Nothing is more important to the future of a country than what’s happening in its schools.

We can also work together to make sure that issues like development and climate change can work through forums we both take part in.

Certainly, President Yudhoyono is intending to raise development matters at the G20, and we support that. And we have worked together and cooperated on climate change. We have a very special partnership on forests here in Indonesia. The question of forests will be discussed in Cancun.

I think what we have done together can be a model for things that can happen