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s a sign of mutual willingness for better relations, Indonesia has pledged to increase interaction with its southern neighbor and seek new avenues of cooperation in trade and technology as the country welcomes Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull'€™s first visit to Jakarta.

The two countries have a history of diplomatic turbulence stretching back decades, but relations reached historic lows under prime minister Tony Abbott, who was ousted in a party coup in September.

Turnbull inherited a bilateral relationship strained by rows over spying, Indonesia'€™s execution of Australian citizens and Abbott'€™s tough asylum seeker policies, all amid an atmosphere of growing Chinese assertiveness in the region.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said that Indonesia would welcome the recently-appointed PM to Indonesia without delving straight into the nitty-gritty of bilateral affairs.

'€œOur main goal is to establish closer rapport with Australia. We will work on building communication through the economic sector and people-to-people contact,'€ Arrmanatha told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said that Indonesia would not expect to bring up any '€œheavy issues'€ like regional security or politics as it was Turnbull'€™s first visit to the country since taking over the reigns from predecessor Tony Abbott.

'€œThis will be Turnbull'€™s first visit, so the goal is to get to know each other,'€ he added.

According to Arrmanatha, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Turnbull are also slated to discuss economic cooperation on issues such as food security and the digital creative economy, the latter of which Turnbull has extensive knowledge of as Australia'€™s former communications minister.

He said the country looked forward to improving its US$10.6 billion trade partnership with Australia by sharing experiences in the realm of the digital economy.

Previously, Arrmanatha said Indonesia was looking to take advantage of its large youth base and continuing technological advances by making use of e-commerce and bringing in savvy digital economy firms to jumpstart the sector in the country.

Turnbull will be looking to reset a vital diplomatic and economic relationship badly strained under his predecessor when he meets Jokowi this Thursday.

With anxiety in Jakarta growing over Beijing'€™s intentions and Turnbull looking to build bridges in Asia, the visit was key for both sides, said Adrian Vickers, director of the Asian Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

'€œThe big thing for Turnbull will actually just be getting enough attention from Indonesia, where there is a potential at this moment to really refocus the relationship given the problems between Indonesia and China,'€ he said as quoted by Reuters.

'€œIt might also be a good way to remind Indonesia of Australia and the potential benefits of the economic relationship.'€

Indonesia is Australia'€™s tenth largest overall trading partner and is the largest export market for Australian wheat worth $917 million in 2014, as well as a major export destination for live cattle and sugar.

They also cooperate closely on counter-terrorism, an area of growing concern as Islamic State (IS) militants seek footholds outside the Middle East, where Australia is bombing the group as part of a US-led military campaign.

But in recent years, perpetual crisis had become the norm, Vickers said, with Abbott very much its public face in Indonesia.

Just one month after he took office in September 2013, revelations that Canberra had spied on then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife sent relations plummeting.

His policy of towing back vessels carrying asylum seekers to Indonesia, while popular at home, infuriated Jakarta, which sees it as an infringement of its sovereignty.

Tensions reached their peak in May when Indonesia executed two Australian members of the Bali Nine drug trafficking ring, despite intense lobbying from Canberra.