Indonesian pact back on track

FOREIGN ministers Julie Bishop and Marty Natalegawa are expected to sign a bilateral intelligence protocol on Thursday.

FOREIGN ministers Julie Bishop and Marty Natalegawa are expected to sign a bilateral intelligence protocol on Thursday, formally ending the rupture caused by allegations an Australian agency spied on the Indonesian President.

Signing of a code of conduct in Bali is expected to be wit­nessed by outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who with his wife and political confidants were the target of an alleged intelligence gathering operation by the Australian Signals Directorate in 2008.

That incident, never denied or confirmed, was one of three spy claims involving Australian and US agencies that emanated from fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The row that erupted in November caused Dr Yudhoyono to suspend policing and intelligence co-operation and defence exercises with Australia. At that stage Indonesia was demanding Australia sign an intelligence code of conduct that undertook never to spy on domestic activities and regulated intelligence-gathering activities.

Facing Australian reluctance to make specific undertakings and anxious to have the rift repaired before he leaves office in October, the Indonesian leader intervened to hasten and simplify the deal. The core undertaking in the protocol is that Australia will never use its intelligence ­capabilities to harm Indonesian interests. That is consistent with the terms of the 2006 Lombok Treaty, the framework for the Australia-Indonesia strategic relationship.

However, several chiefs of Indonesian national police and security agencies have claimed this year they received personal undertakings from their Australian counterparts that spying activities in Indonesia were permanently suspended.