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Abbott hopes to forge personal ties with Jokowi
After relations between the two nations hit an all-time low last year following a string of rows over spying and boat people, newly inaugurated President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo had dinner with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brisbane on Friday
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fter relations between the two nations hit an all-time low last year following a string of rows over spying and boat people, newly inaugurated President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo had dinner with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brisbane on Friday.
In his introductory note to Abbott, Jokowi said in English that Australia was important for Indonesia as many Indonesian nationals studied and worked in the country. 'This is my first visit to Australia as President. I used to come regularly in the past to visit my son, who was studying here,' he said.
According to Jokowi, there are 17,200 Indonesians studying in Australia.After the meeting, Jokowi said only that he and Abbott had talked about various issues in a casual and off-the-cuff discussion. 'It was just a light talk,' said Jokowi briefly.
Abbott attended Jokowi's inauguration as the country's seventh president on Oct. 20. They also met during the APEC summit in Beijing and the East Asia summit in Myanmar earlier this week.
Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto said that Abbott had invited Jokowi as a friend to dinner with the hope of initiating a personal friendship. 'It wasn't a bilateral meeting. It was an invitation to forge closer personal ties so that moving forward, the relationship between the two nations can hinge on this friendship,' said Andi.
Abbott had good personal relations with Jokowi's predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but there was outrage last year when it was revealed that Australian intelligence services had wiretapped the conversations of Yudhoyono, his wife and his close aides from 2007 to 2009.
'These weren't serious talks. Abbott asked about Jokowi's journey from furniture businessman to President.
The prime minister said that his grandfather had also been a carpenter,' Andi said.
Jokowi is in Brisbane to attend the annual G20 summit, a meeting of the world's 20 largest economies, in the final leg of his nine-day overseas trip.
Aside from attending the summit, Jokowi's itinerary in Brisbane also includes a meeting with Indonesian nationals residing in Australia. After stopping over in Denpasar, Bali, en route from Naypyitaw, Jokowi's entourage contains fewer than 40 people. Yudhoyono used to travel with at least 90 officials, aides and journalists. Meanwhile, in Jakarta, Vice President Jusuf Kalla defended Indonesia's membership in the G20, saying that apart from the various benefits that could be gained from participating in the group, the country's inclusion was based on its gross domestic product (GDP).
'It's not a question of requesting membership in the G20 [...] it's just because of our economic size. By GDP, we are ranked 16th or 17th [in the world], so we are automatically included. Indonesia never asked for membership,' Kalla said as quoted by kompas.com.
The Vice President's remarks were in response to statements made by Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who urged the President to withdraw Indonesia from the G20. Susi argued that not only did Indonesia not gain anything from its membership, but in fact lost out.
'We don't need to be arrogant, but we're losing our money ['¦] in the G20. We can't make any decisions, because it's not the G8. The G8 are the policymakers; we're just followers,' Susi told journalists recently.
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