JAKARTA: Indonesian and Australian leaders signed a new bilateral security treaty Friday that both governments say will deepen ties between the often-testy neighbors.
The treaty was signed in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, three months after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto announced in Sydney that negotiations on the pact had been substantively concluded, highlighting their ambition to better utilize the two country’s past security agreements inked in 1995 and 2006.
Albanese has cast the agreement as a “watershed moment” in relations with its major closest neighbor, saying in a statement ahead of his arrival in Jakarta late Thursday, that it marks a major extension of existing security and defense cooperation and reflects a relationship “as strong as it has ever been.” He is traveling with Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who called it the most important step in the partnership in three decades.
Analysts said the treaty is becoming increasingly important to Australia in face of growing tensions with China in the region. However, it is expected to echo elements of a 1995 security agreement inked between then-Prime Minister Paul Keating and Indonesia’s former authoritarian President Suharto — Prabowo ‘s former father-in-law.
