“Sakarepmu!” (up to you, I don’t care!) President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s responded (in my imagination) when Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called him on Sept. 20 to assure his Indonesian counterpart that Australia was not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability and that Australia would continue to stick to its nuclear non-proliferation obligations.

President Jokowi was reportedly upset by Morrison’s diplomatic snub, even close to a betrayal, because Australia kept mum about its security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom, dubbed AUKUS, until the very last minute.

Jokowi had received an intelligence briefing about the security pact formation before its official announcement. That was why he turned down the request by PM Morrison to make a stopover in Jakarta on his way home from Washington, DC, citing as the excuse that he would be out of town at that time.

On Sept. 9, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto met with their Australian counterparts Marine Payne and Peter Dutton, respectively, during the Indonesia-Australia Foreign and Defense Ministers two-plus-two meeting in Jakarta. The Australian side flattered Indonesia as one of Australia’s most strategic partners and nothing would ever change this fundamental strategy.

Instead of informing their hosts about the planned AUKUS pact, Payne and Dutton only gave a very vague tip that left Retno and Prabowo guessing.

“The Australian ministers simply told their Indonesian hosts that there would be an announcement on a security issue, but without any further explanations,” diplomatic sources told The Jakarta Post recently.

The two Australian ministers called Retno and Prabowo just a few hours before US President Joe Biden’s official announcement on AUKUS on Sept. 15.

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