TheJakartaPost
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Time to strengthen Australia-Indonesia partnership
Australia should work closely with Indonesia to build regional resilience on other challenges that loom large over the next 30 years, whether it be decarbonization, shared prosperity, security or human displacement.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (left) and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison talk during a document signing at Parliament House, Canberra, on Feb. 10, 2020. (Bloomberg/Mark Graham)
On Thursday, the foreign and defense ministers of Indonesia and Australia are due to meet in Jakarta for vital talks. The stakes are high. No Australian minister has visited Indonesia since the pandemic began, while ministers have visited Jakarta in that time from many other nations.
As an Australian and an Indonesian, we believe our governments should grasp the opportunity of this rare in-person meeting to accelerate a new era in Australian-Indonesian relations. Our two countries elevated their bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in July 2020, reflecting the importance of our economic and strategic relationship.
The time is right to invest more into the relationship so that the two countries can nurture democracy together, much like former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa has suggested, and help the region to navigate growing superpower rivalry between the US and China in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia will be Australia’s closest and arguably most important bilateral relationship over the next 30 years, by which time Indonesia is projected to be the world’s fourth-largest economy. Indonesia is already a global leader, due to be chair of the Group of 20 next year and ASEAN in 2023.
Here are some priorities we hope the governments will agree in their talks.
First, Indonesia is suffering enormously from COVID-19. As others have argued, Australia should considerably expand its Indonesian COVID-19 Development Response Plan to help Indonesia’s recovery. More broadly, Australia should work closely with Indonesia to build regional resilience on other challenges that loom large over the next 30 years, whether it be decarbonization, shared prosperity, security or human displacement. All are linked — the less distance between the approaches taken by our countries the better.
We have watched with horror at the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan. Of great concern to both Australia and Indonesia should be large-scale displacement of Afghans in the coming weeks and months. Australia’s role in the war in Afghanistan and subsequent Allied occupation elevates the duty Australia owes to those now fearing persecution.
