Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has brought a press packed with leaders and a group of high-ranking business leaders on his first Prime Minister’s visit to Indonesia as his government tries to restart Australia’s relations in the region. increased anxiety by China’s rapid rise.
Key points:
- Albanese has chosen Jakarta as the destination for its first official bilateral trip
- The government has inherited a strong Coalition relationship
- Indonesia has yet to break the list of Australia’s top 10 trading partners
Choosing Jakarta as the destination of her first official bilateral trip, Albanese follows a family flight route with her predecessors and makes the same statement about Australia’s foreign relations hierarchy.
Whether it is devoted to the subtle arts of the statist and to regional diplomacy, it is only one of the many tests Mr. Albanese is about to pass.
The prime minister had an early taste, flying to Tokyo for the Quad Summit just hours after swearing in.
Jakarta will be joined by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Commerce Minister Don Farrell and Industry Minister Ed Husic, and nearly a dozen business leaders, including heads of Wesfarmers, Telstra and Commonwealth Bank.
“My government is determined to have better relations across the Indo-Pacific region,” Albanese said before leaving on Sunday.
“This first visit with a high-level delegation from Australia indicates to our Indonesian friends how important we are to this relationship.”
The Albanian government has inherited a strong relationship from the Coalition, which signed a long-awaited trade agreement with the world’s largest Muslim democracy and forged closer strategic ties.
However, the pandemic has prevented the economic association from reaching anything close to its full potential.
Albanese says his government is “determined to have better relations in the Indo-Pacific region.” (ABC News)
The agreement, which aims to eliminate tariffs and boost trade and investment in various sectors, was signed in 2019, but was only ratified in Indonesia when the pandemic began.
Indonesia, a country of more than 270 million people that hosts this year’s G20 summit, has not yet made a list of Australia’s top 10 trading partners.
Labor has accused the Coalition of neglecting its Southeast Asian neighbors and has promised to invest an additional $ 470 million in aid to the region and work with Jakarta to provide a $ 200 million “climate and infrastructure partnership” .
“The ball is in Australia’s court for business and investment”
Professor Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the Jakarta Policy Research Center said: “The road to the heart of Jokowi will be business and investment,” referring to President Joko Widodo.
And in this sense, he said: “The ball is on the court of Australia.”
What matters most, according to Professor Anwar, is the personal relationship that Mr. Albanese develops with President Widodo, or Jokowi, as he is known.
“Relationships are painted by personalities as well as by politicians,” he said.
“It simply came to our notice then [Malcolm] Turnbull and President Widodo with that famous market visit.
“It simply came to our notice then [former] Prime Minister Scott Morrison and President Joko Widodo “.
Professor Anwar said it was Labor, rather than coalition governments in Australia, who had done the most to foster closer relations in the region.
“It has always been said that Labor prime ministers often make extra efforts to get closer to their Asian neighbors,” he said.
In fact, it was Paul Keating who, as Prime Minister, acknowledged the importance of working closely with the governments of Jakarta, once declaring that “no country is more important to Australia than Indonesia.”
Mr Albanese may be trying to emulate this approach on his first visit to Southeast Asia.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has also acknowledged signs that the new Albanian government will strengthen Australia’s co-operation in the region.
Last week, he cited a promise by Australia’s new foreign minister, Penny Wong, to appoint a “traveling” special envoy to ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“If you look at its history, the [Australian] The Labor Party has established closer relations with Asian countries, including Southeast Asia, “he said, noting that expectations for Albanese will be high.
Plenty of problems
However, Australia’s relationship with Indonesia has long been hampered by issues such as concerns about human rights abuses, Indonesia’s sensitivity to West Papua, and the return of applicants’ boats. asylum and Bali Nine executions.
More recently, Australia has sounded the alarm in Jakarta and Malaysia over its AUKUS agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States to build nuclear-powered submarines.
Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry then expressed deep concern over the “continuing arms race and the projection of power in the region.”
The statement was a reference to the great rivalry in Indonesia’s backyard between an increasingly assertive China and the United States, which sees Beijing as its number one threat. in front).
Indonesia rejects Chinese incursions into its maritime zone and disputes Beijing’s territorial claims over the South China Sea, but has so far resisted taking a stronger line.
The big elephant in the room
Philips J Vermonte, a senior member of the Jakarta Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China would be the “big room elephant” during the first meeting of Mr. Albanese with Mr. Widodo.
“We don’t want to choose either side when we talk about China or the United States,” he said, noting that China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner.
“I think the DNA of Southeast Asian countries is that we want to have an inclusive region open.”
China will not be the only sensitive issue for Mr. Albanese to sail during his first official meeting with his Indonesian counterpart.
The Prime Minister will return to Indonesia in November for this year’s G20 summit, which is already generating controversy over the likely attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When asked if he would be comfortable attending the summit with Putin, Albanese said he “did not have time” for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, but noted that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had been invited to observe.
“Of course, it’s the case that people who respect human rights would feel uncomfortable sitting around the table with Vladimir Putin,” he said.
“I note that President Zelenskyy has also been invited to watch the meeting, at least by video link, and I think it is an important initiative that has been taken.”
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