Australia, Indonesia inch towards boost in security ties with upgraded defence pact

Australia and Indonesia are building on existing lines of cooperation as they inch towards an upgrade in security ties, but both sides are still seen to be far from establishing a formal military alliance or treaty.

While observers note that ties between Canberra and Jakarta have improved through the decades, with the momentum expected to be maintained under incoming Indonesian leader Prabowo Subianto, the relationship should be viewed “beyond the lens” of the US-China rivalry.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles is set to visit Indonesia at the end of this month to sign the upgraded agreement with Prabowo, according to a report by Australia’s national broadcaster, ABC.

Prabowo – who will be inaugurated as Indonesia’s president in October – will also be making a trip to Canberra in the next few weeks to meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“I will welcome the Indonesian defence minister in the next fortnight, who is coming to Canberra, and he’ll have meetings with my cabinet,” Albanese said in an interview with ABC last Thursday. “In a matter of weeks, I will attend his inauguration. The cooperation that we have with Indonesia is very strong indeed.”

When the upgraded agreement was first announced in February, Marles described it as “the deepest, most significant defence agreement between our two nations in our respective histories”.

And while Marles called it a “treaty-level” document, analysts say Indonesian policymakers are likely to refrain from such a characterisation.

“Indonesia has made it clear that it will not be party to any formal treaty-like defence arrangements,” said Natalie Sambhi, executive director of independent think tank Verve Research and a lecturer at Deakin University, Australian War