Pact to heal Indonesian spy rift

THE Australian and Indonesian governments have concluded an agreement to patch up differences over allegations of Australian spying on Indonesia.

THE Australian and Indonesian governments have concluded an agreement to patch up differences over allegations of Australian spying on Indonesia and could formally sign the text as early as this week.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is seeking to co-ordinate a date to travel to Indonesia to sign the agreement with her counterpart Marty Natalegawa.

The signing will be witnessed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who leaves office in October after 10 years.

There is no plan to have his ­replacement, Joko Widodo, who won last month’s election, involved in the signing ceremony as this would be a breach of protocol before he formally takes office.

The Canberra-Jakarta agreement will settle all issues arising over allegations that the then ­Defence Signals Directorate spied on Indonesia’s President and his inner entourage in 2009.

It will also lead to the resumption of co-operation in those policy areas where such efforts had been suspended by Jakarta.

The agreement will be called the Joint Understanding of a Code of Conduct.

It will stand formally as an annex to the Lombok Treaty on mutual security, which Alexander Downer signed on behalf of the Howard government with then Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda in 2006.

Canberra had wanted to call the agreement a joint understanding in order to keep it relatively vague. Jakarta had wanted a code of conduct to be more specific and prescriptive. The compromise is a Joint Understanding of a Code of Conduct.

In the short agreement, Australia will promise never to use its intelligence agencies to harm Indonesia.

Under the original six-point plan proposed by the Indonesian government late last year to settle the dispute, Tony Abbott and Dr Yudhoyono were to witness the signing of an eventual agreement by their foreign ministers. It is understood the Prime Minister was more than happy to do this in principle, but the difficulty was finding a date that suited all the key participants.

The plan now is for Ms Bishop to travel to Jakarta to sign the agreement with Dr Natalegawa in Dr Yudhoyono’s presence.

It is understood Mr Abbott was personally involved in drafting the form of words in the agreement and that these have been reviewed by Dr Yudhoyono.

Dr Natalegawa has briefed the Indonesian cabinet on the contents of the agreement.

Last October, leaks from former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden ­alleged that the DSD, now the Australian Signals Directorate, had eavesdropped on the phone conversations of the Indonesian President, his wife and his inner circle.

The Indonesian government suspended co-operation on people-smuggling, intelligence and some areas of defence. It also withdrew its ambassador, Nadjib Riphat ­Kesoema, in protest.

Relations were further complicated by Jakarta’s opposition to the Abbott government’s boats-turnback policy and then by revelations that in January this year Australian ships had inadvertently strayed into Indonesian sovereign waters while carrying out that policy.

In recent months, both sides have moved to improve co-operation across most areas.

Ms Bishop and Dr Natalegawa have kept up a constant dialogue throughout the period of strained relationship and this has been important in keeping the dispute under control. Similarly, Dr Yudhoyono expressed a desire to get the issue wrapped up before he leaves office in October.

In defence, only joint exercises and joint patrolling are currently suspended. Joint exercises are likely to resume once the new agreement is signed.

Joint patrolling may be more problematic as Jakarta is still ­opposed to the Abbott government’s boats policy, although the lack of asylum-seeker boats departing from Indonesia in recent months has seen the issue recede markedly. The Australian understands that a great deal of bilateral co-operation has already been resumed, especially in relation to intelligence sharing.

Lieutenant General Marciano Norman, the head of Indonesia’s national intelligence agency, Badan Intelijen Negara, recently visited Australia for consultations. Similarly, the heads of, or senior figures within, several Australian intelligence agencies, including the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, recently visited Indonesia.

This intelligence exchange has mainly been about both countries’ providing information to each other regarding the threat of terrorism. This has been driven by the emergence of concerns about foreign fighters joining Islamic State and other hyper-extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.

Both Australia and Indonesia have a substantial number of citizens involved in the fighting in the Middle East.

Indonesian Islamist extremist leader Abu Bakar Bashir recently gave in-principle support to ­Islamic State and its ambition to establish an Islamist caliphate in the Middle East. The Indonesian government has denounced all such support.