Australia and Indonesia to sign ‘watershed’ security treaty in new era of co-operation
Australia and Indonesia will sign a landmark security treaty in January, committing both nations to consult and act jointly against threats in a return to Keating-era cooperation.
Australia and Indonesia will sign a “watershed” security treaty in January committing both sides to consult and consider joint actions in the event of a threat against one or both nations, in an agreement that returns the bilateral relationship to the political high point of the Keating-Suharto era.
Anthony Albanese and President Prabowo Subianto made the surprise announcement aboard the HMAS Canberra at Sydney’s Garden Island naval base on Wednesday during a whirlwind state visit by the Indonesian leader, his first since his inauguration in October last year.
The Prime Minister described the Treaty of Common Security as a “watershed moment in the Australia-Indonesia relationship” that built on the 2024 Defence Co-operation Agreement (DCA) and recognised the best way to secure regional peace and security was to act together.
The pact was negotiated in secret over six months by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her Indonesian counterpart Sugiono after Mr Albanese told Mr Prabowo during his May trip to Jakarta, days after his re-election, that he wanted the two neighbours’ security ties to go deeper than the DCA.
“It signals a new era in the Australia-Indonesia relationship,” Mr Albanese said, as the two leaders stood flanked by a navy Seahawk and army Black Hawk helicopter.
“This treaty will commit Australia and Indonesia to consult at a leader and ministerial level on a regular basis on matters of security, to identify and undertake mutually beneficial security activities, and if either or both countries’ security is threatened, to consult and consider what measures may be taken – either individually or jointly – to deal with those threats.”
The pact stops short of a mutual defence agreement, such as the PukPuk treaty signed with Papua New Guinea last month that obliges both parties to come to the defence of the other, (though it may be a response to that agreement, which has sparked concerns in Indonesia).
But it binds the two governments together at a political and strategic level not seen since 1995 when prime minister Paul Keating signed a defence co-operation agreement with president Suharto, Indonesia’s autocratic leader who this week was controversially declared a national hero.
That agreement was ripped up by Jakarta in 1999 – a year after Suharto’s ousting – over Australia’s decision to lead an international peacekeeping force in East Timor ahead of its independence vote.
Mr Albanese said the treaty was “based predominantly” on the Keating-Suharto defence agreement, and also built on the Lombok Treaty – an agreement between the two nations that Jakarta sees as a guarantee that Australia will never again intervene in what it deems to be internal security matters.
Exactly what kind of common security threat would trigger the treaty – another flotilla of Chinese warships circumnavigating Australia, Chinese coastguard incursions into Indonesia’s Natuna seas or a Russian permanent presence at an airbase in Papua – remains to be seen.
Mr Prabowo said the agreement committed both nations “to close co-operation in the defence and security field, essentially reaffirming our determination to enhance our friendship as partners and close neighbours”.
He said his government was determined to maintain the “best of relationships” with Australia in order to “enhance and guarantee the security of both our countries”.
“Good neighbours will help each other in times of difficulties,” he said. “In Indonesian culture we have a saying; when we face an emergency it is our neighbour that will help us. Maybe our relatives will remain far away but our neighbours are closest to us and only good neighbours will help us.”
Hours after the treaty announcement Mr Keating paid a visit to the Indonesian President at his Sydney hotel where the two discussed “strategic issues in international relations, economics, as well as regional geoeconomics and geopolitics”, according to a statement issued by the presidential palace.
The statement described the former prime minister as a “highly experienced figure with sharp insights into global dynamics”.
“We must understand that we are neighbours, and Indonesia has an interest in maintaining good relations with Australia,” the statement said. “Likewise, if we work well together in all fields, it will bring great benefits to both countries and to our entire region.”
Australia has made similar commitments to only a handful of other countries, including New Zealand and the US under the ANZUS treaty, PNG, Nauru and Japan. But the agreement is arguably more significant a commitment for non-aligned Indonesia which, under Mr Prabowo’s “friends to all, enemy of none” foreign policy has seen Jakarta build closer ties with Russia and China.
A leaked report earlier this year that claimed Russia had asked Indonesia to base its warplanes on the Papuan air base of Biak, on Australia’s northern doorstep, sent Canberra into a tailspin.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior security analyst Euan Graham said while it was too early to tell how significant the treaty was given the lack of detail, the benefits to Canberra were clear. “For Australia, they want to raise the security relationship to a new political level under Prabowo and keep Indonesia close, while from the Indonesian perspective, it’s a signal that they’re not going all in on China or Russia.”
- Additional reporting Ben Packham and Lachlan Leeming
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