Anthony Albanese’s weekend scheduling snafu is a perfect illustration of the delicate juggling act it is for any Australian government to manage its regional partnerships and its historic allegiances.
Whatever your views on the British monarchy and King Charles’ continued role as Australia’s titular head of state, it would hardly do for the Prime Minister to be absent on his arrival.
Yet, having promised Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto – our region’s most important new leader and a man of reputed mercurial temperament – just weeks ago that he would attend his presidential inauguration in Jakarta this Sunday, Albanese’s no-show will not go unnoticed.
Certainly the news has come as a surprise to the Prabowo camp who only last Friday confirmed at the incoming administration’s first foreign press briefing that the Australian PM would be among the leaders attending the event.
The Albanese government has worked hard to build good relations with Indonesia’s president-elect in the lead-up to his swearing-in. As Southeast Asia’s de facto leader, its biggest economy and the world’s third-largest democracy, it is critical that we maintain the best possible relations with Indonesia, our giant near neighbour.
Thanks to Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, who will attend in Albanese’s place this weekend, the government pulled off a diplomatic coup by concluding an upgraded defence co-operation agreement with Prabowo just months before he takes office.
The Prime Minister’s diary screw-up will hardly undo all of that good work, though it is probably also inevitable that it leaves a sour taste.
Prabowo, perhaps better than most Indonesian politicians, understands Australia’s essential duality; a country that sees itself as part of Asia even as it has always looked across the Pacific to its closest allies.
As Indonesian defence minister he defended Canberra’s right to pursue its own national security interests through AUKUS, even as others in the region rolled their eyes at a security pact that confirmed suspicions that Australia talks a big game on Asia while remaining avowedly Anglo-centric.
But it has taken Prabowo, now 73, several decades and five elections to finally reach Indonesia’s presidential palace – and who turns up this weekend matters.
As every good diplomat knows, showing up is half the battle.
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