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![]() ![]() ![]() Howard tightens ties with Jakarta
![]() The Age
![]() By LOUISE DODSON
JAKARTA
Friday 8 February 2002
Australia and Indonesia yesterday entered a closer new relationship with increased defence, intelligence, police, legal and cultural ties, despite snubs from Indonesian politicians marring Mr Howard's visit.
In a strong overture to the people of the world's most populous Muslim nation, Mr Howard set up a regular forum for meetings between Islamic leaders in Australia and Indonesia.
He called on Australians to be "sympathetic" and "supportive" towards Indonesia, but conceded that differences remained and that one visit could not be seen as "a sort of king-hit solution to the difficulties between two nations".
A new memorandum of understanding initially for 12 months between the two countries was formally signed by Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and Australian ambassador Ric Smith with Mr Howard present.
It will cover Australia sharing with Indonesia information from all intelligence agencies as well as the police and the Customs, Immigration and Attorney-General's departments, as part of a new campaign to counter international terrorism in the region.
However, it will not involve the use of United States intelligence, which is shared with Australia without prior approval from the Americans, senior officials said.
The US was told about the memorandum on Wednesday and warmly welcomed the move. It is planning to upgrade its links with Indonesia to fight terrorism in the region.
Mr Howard also announced a new process of ministerial dialogue between the two countries, which he said was similar to the Australia-US dialogue.
He signalled assistance in pressing the International Monetary Fund to allow Indonesia more time to pay back loans.
And he said defence ties would gradually increase over time, but strongly denied reports of cooperation between Australia's elite SAS military and Indonesian forces.The ties will probably involve visits by top military officials.
Mr Howard has not been able to get much progress on a regional agreement with Indonesia on measures to combat people smuggling, although the issue was discussed and will be further pursued at the conference hosted by Australia and Indonesia in Bali later this month.
The PM also played down the role of Indonesia in the movement of asylum seekers to Australia, saying: "It has to be understood that all of the people who come to Australia or sought to come to Australia in recent months have come originally from countries other than Indonesia."
In response to claims by Indonesian politicians such as Amien Rais, Mr Howard was forced to stress publicly Australia's commitment to Indonesia's unity and territory, including Papua and the troubled Aceh province. He stressed that the new memorandum would not "be any kind of device whereby Australia gets involved in the domestic affairs of Indonesia".
Accusations that Australia supported the independence of Papua have been used by Mr Rais and other Indonesian politicians to cancel scheduled formal meetings with Mr Howard, although Mr Rais, Speaker of the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly, did attend the state dinner last night and talked with Mr Howard.
The cancellation of Mr Howard's visit to the Indonesian parliament was dismissed by the Prime Minister as domestic politicking.
Mr Howard invited President Megawati to visit Australia later this year.
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