PM picks the right destination

Anthony Albanese travelling to Indonesia on Wednesday, the day after his re-elected government is sworn in, sends an important signal to our northern neighbour and to the Southeast Asian region about Australia’s diplomatic priorities.

“We have no more important relationship than Indonesia just to our north,” the Prime Minister told the ABC. The visit will be “a signal to our region of the importance we place on this region”.

The visit is timely. During the election campaign The Australian revealed that the government was aware, before the campaign began, of a Russian request to use Indonesian airfields for long-range military aircraft – only 1300km from Darwin and 1800km from the US base at Guam.

Indonesia recently joined the China and Russia-led BRICS developing nation grouping. The Russian ambassador in Jakarta, Sergei Tolchenov, said Australia had “no cards” in regard to Russia’s “integral” military relationship with Indonesia. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s government refused the air base request. But the two nations are engaged in developing a commercial space facility on Biak Island in Indonesia’s Papua province.

In its first term the Albanese government laid important groundwork to strengthen Australia’s bilateral relationship with Indonesia through the 2024 Defence Co-operation Agreement and the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy.

This week’s visit by Mr Albanese, Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Gatra Priyandita writes, is an opportunity to develop Indonesia’s relationship with Australia, “not as a reluctant participant or passive neighbour but as a strategic partner in its own right”. Indonesia’s rapidly growing economy, with 285 million people – the fourth-largest population of any country in the world – should be a natural trading partner for Australia.

The latest Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade figures show two-way trade between our nations ranks 13th in terms of Australia’s trading relationships. The current situation leaves significant scope for growth when diversifying trading markets has rarely mattered as much, given the uncertainty over tariffs between the US and China.

In making Indonesia the first overseas visit of his government’s second term, Mr Albanese is putting out his hand for a closer relationship with Mr Prabowo early in his term. Unlike his post-election visit in June 2022, Mr Albanese will not be accompanied by former industry minister Ed Husic, who was the only Muslim in his cabinet and did much to develop the bilateral economic relationship.

But Mr Albanese brings more experience to the visit than he had three years ago and the conditions are right for serious engagement.