Ordinary Indonesians emphatically embraced the relationship. It melted Indonesian hearts. It was what Indonesians were hoping for—something human, a friendship with Australia based on mutual understanding, respect, and trust.

The result was that the best possible foundations were laid. With Indonesia’s support, Keating advanced the role of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) to the extent that, today, the 21 Pacific Rim member economies continue to work closely to promote free trade and human security significantly based on shared values.

Keating showed what was possible. For one thing, the 1995 security agreement with Indonesia ensured that Australia would be surrounded by allies. Keating himself referred to his foreign policy epiphany as “Security in Asia, not from Asia”. We still bask in the afterglow of what Keating and Soeharto achieved by working together.

From Sunday, Australia’s 31^st prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will be in Jakarta to meet President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. Both are close in age and, as such, are from the same generation. Both are reported to love rock music.

The “cultural iceberg theory” suggests that Prime Minister Albanese and President Jokowi have at least two obvious things in common. But, below the surface, like the 90 percent of the “cultural iceberg” that is unseen, just waiting for the “right chemistry”, are enormous people-to-people opportunities that, if nurtured and resourced, will generate a multiplier effect for the Australia-Indonesia relationship that could last for generations.

As a caveat, the director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at the University of Melbourne, Prof. Tim Lindsey, reminds us that, “There are ‘challenges’ in the relationship” but adds, “Prime Minister Albanese’s visit is a historic opportunity to reset the relationship based on what we have in common”.

Here Lindsey is not talking about the obvious, namely trade and investment and recent geopolitical frictions but rather about the largely unseen myriad of professional networks and interpersonal friendships that quietly exist across the spectrum of our respective civil societies. According to Lindsey, this truly defines what it is to be friends and good neighbors. And this is where I want to give an example from my own experience to illustrate just why Prime Minister Albanese’s visit, within two weeks of the election, is so symbolic and so exciting.

In August 2005, I was one of the organizers of the Indonesian tour of the BlueScope Steel Youth Orchestra and the Australian Boys Choir. Over 100 extraordinary young Australians performed at two gala concerts at the Sultan’s Palace in Yogyakarta, dubbed Indonesia’s cultural and educational capital.  Significantly, the Australian government’s Australia Indonesia Institute was among the funders of this unique partnership.

The concert had two immediate purposes. The first was to celebrate the 17^th anniversary of the coronation of Sultan Hamengku Buwono X and, the second, to raise funds for over 800 students from Aceh studying in Yogyakarta, many of whom were left orphaned and destitute when their families perished in the devastating Boxing Day tsunami of the previous year.

Significantly, His Majesty invited these young Australians to join some of Indonesia’s best young performers in two benefit concerts called Gita Swarasisya Buana, which means “the song of students’ voices among nations”.

The concerts were staged at the Royal Palace, raising over Rp 160 million (US$18, 140) in one night alone to support Acehnese students with basic living costs and tuition fees. When they were not rehearsing for their performances, these young people had the chance to visit some of the sights of Yogyakarta as hosts of their young counterparts—and meet the students from Aceh.

These friendships endure to the present day.

The young Australians also performed at a private function for the sultan and 150 of his key tsunami fundraising supporters where they appeared together with Indonesia’s leading youth choir, top brass and percussion musicians, dancers, and leading pop singers in an extraordinary collaboration of Indonesian and Australian music.

The program included a sentimental favorite – Bengawan Solo, which emotionally affected many in the audience, especially the older people who could remember the significance of the tune as one of the first popular songs recorded in the national language Bahasa Indonesia.

As someone who has invested his entire adult life in advancing the Australia-Indonesia relationship, my hope is that the prime minister’s and the president’s senior advisors will bring to their attention the YouTube presentation of Gita Swarasisya Buana (youtu.be/qqO3VEC1lMU).

The recorded concert will fill their hearts with awe and pride for what their young people accomplished—by working together, as good neighbors should. Significantly, the first night’s Gita Swarasisya Buana concert was broadcast live from the Royal Palace on SCTV channel to a viewing audience of over 60 million people from Aceh to Merauke—and then repeated three times by popular demand.

In responding to the video, Prof. Lindsey’s comment was, “Now imagine if Australia’s leading source of funding for people-to-people links between the two countries, the Australia Indonesia Institute, was properly resourced, as it was under Keating? We could duplicate this kind of intergenerational impact a thousand times over. That is what we need”.

I know this to be true because I still get messages after all this time from parents to say the concerts positively changed their children’s lives. They simply fell in love with Indonesia, with many going on to make Indonesia and their enduring Indonesian friendships, as I have, the focus of their adult lives.

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The writer is an adjunct fellow and researcher at the University of Western Sydney and an Australian Federal government registered lobbyist.