Abbot holds off on signing deals with Indonesia

Yudhoyono was satisfied with Abbot’s readiness to meet him on Batam Island, located a few kilometres from Singapore. 

In a joint press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Yudhoyono did not refer to the fact that his demand for Australia to sign a code of conduct would not be realised before he ends his 10 years in office in October. 

“I’ve just had a meeting with the Australian prime minister that was productive and constructive. We discussed methods to maintain and improve cooperation and partnership between the two countries as we move toward a future based on respect,” Yudhoyono told reporters.

Relations between the two countries nose-dived shortly after Abbott’s Conservative Party-led coalition won the election in September last year defeating the Labour Party, whose governments have traditionally been favoured by Indonesia. One of Abbott’s policies that Indonesia found irksome was his determination to take a much tougher stance against undocumented migrants trying to enter Australia by boat through Indonesian waters.

However, it was the media reports in November that Australia had spied on Yudhoyono, First Lady Ani Yudhoyono and several top officials that outraged the president. He suspended military and police cooperation with Australia and also recalled the Indonesian ambassador to Australia.

“Of course, one of our important subjects of discussion was the efforts of Indonesia and Australia regarding the issue which disrupted our relationship in 2013; the problem of the bugging. We hope it will never happen again,” Yudhoyono said.

“The two foreign ministers have continued to discuss the issue of proposing a code of conduct in the near future so the process of improving cooperation can be implemented smoothly,” Yudhoyono noted.

He also reminded the nation of the importance of Australia to Indonesia with one million Australian tourists visiting Indonesia, particularly Bali, every year, and 150,000 Indonesian students enrolled at educational establishments in Australia.

Abbott said that despite a couple of issues that had damaged Jakarta-Canberra ties, he was confident they were well on the way to a satisfactory and successful resolution.

However, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said he was dissatisfied with Australia’s failure to respond to the draft code of conduct proposed by Indonesia. When asked about the dateline for the code, since the current government would end in October, Natalegawa responded that he would do his best to finalise it and noted that the most important thing was ensuring the code protected Indonesian national interests.

“The point is no more spying by one government on the other.”