A

stroll through Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden on Sunday marked another fresh effort from Indonesian and Australian leaders to continue improving bilateral ties. Afterwards, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo held talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the second opportunity since November 2015, when they drew an excited crowd at the Tanah Abang market. Jokowi clearly wants more bilateral trade, investment and tourism.

It was crucial for Jokowi to reciprocate Turnbull’s visit as soon as possible — as the plan to visit Australia last November was put on hold following a massive rally against incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who is accused of blasphemy. Despite continued protests against Ahok, Jokowi was confident enough to fly to Australia for a weekend visit.

For Australians watching those rallies with nervousness, he told The Australian that respecting diversity was “in our DNA,” meaning he would not cower to Islamists. Maintaining Indonesia’s credibility as a democracy is also crucial to convince Australians that he was doing his best to improve its investment climate. Further, the visit also confirmed that a recent military spat could be put to rest. The Indonesian Military (TNI) previously had discovered Australian military training material that was said to be degrading of Indonesia’s state ideology Pancasila and territorial integrity.

Officials have said talks on Indonesia-Australia economic agreements are on the right track, and that barriers to trade, investment and access to service markets will be removed. This will significantly help increase investment from Australia, which ranks low compared to other countries and is concentrated mainly in mining.

Distractions are the last thing we need and it was unfortunate that it came from Jokowi himself. He told The Australian that joint patrols with Australia “in the South China Sea, potentially around Indonesia’s own Natuna Islands at the southern edge of the waters, [are] ‘very important’—as long as they did not raise tensions in the region.”

Last October, the two countries’ foreign and defense ministries agreed that, among others things, “on the South China Sea, we underline the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability, freedom of navigation in and overflights above the South China Sea.”

We must ensure that ongoing efforts by Indonesia and fellow ASEAN members to have a code of conduct on the disputed sea to make strides this year, despite China’s wooing of its Southeast Asian neighbors. Notions of joint patrols with Australia at this time would only serve to irritate China, which its neighbors are trying to bring into line within a regional code of conduct.