Jakarta meeting ‘early test for Anthony Albanese’

Anthony Albanese could face an early foreign policy test this weekend when he flies into Jakarta for talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Picture: AFP

Anthony Albanese could face an early foreign policy test this weekend when he flies into Jakarta for talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who is likely to seek assurances that the Prime Minister will attend the G20 leaders’ summit in Bali this November.

Mr Albanese arrives in the ­Indonesian capital on Sunday with a delegation of cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who will meet her counterpart, Retno Marsudi, on Sunday ahead of the leaders’ meeting on Monday.

The Indonesian foreign ministry’s East Asia director, Santo Darmosumarto, said the two leaders would focus on economic issues during the talks, which were last held in Canberra in February 2020, “especially in the context of efforts to accelerate post-pandemic economic ­recovery”.

“We know that within the ­Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership there are a lot of issues related to security and democratic co-­operation, but considering we are still facing unfavourable global economic conditions, we hope we can focus more on economic issues and how the two countries can overcome these problems at regional or global level, including through co­operation between the two countries at the G20 forum.”

Two-way trade in goods rose more than 76 per cent last year thanks largely to Indonesia’s rising appetite for wheat as well as Australian coking coal and iron ore to power Indonesia’s growing steel export industry, but implementation of the Indonesia- Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was “still below expectation”, Dr Darmosumarto said. He said the fact Indonesia would be Mr ­Albanese’s first ­bilateral visit since his swearing in “shows the importance of the IACSP”.

Former Australian ambassador to Indonesia John McCarthy said he expected Mr Albanese’s attendance at the G20 leaders’ summit would be raised during discussions and he should adopt a more nuanced position than Scott Morrison, who had said it would be a “step too far” to sit at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I think we have to be more constructive than that,” he said. “It won’t be an easy one but we have to try to get it right. We have to understand the importance of this meeting to Jokowi and find a way to support him.”

Indonesian international relations professor Aleksius Jemadu said that as a fellow middle power Indonesia expected more support from Australia of its G20 presidency than Mr Morrison had offered.