The Indonesian president outlined four major steps to improve the relationship, two of which were quite unexpected.
- Adjunct Professor, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University
Jokowi’s visit was a good deal shorter than the one planned for last year. But it did highlight several important issues in the bilateral relationship.
On balance, it seems that the Australia-Indonesia relationship is more or less back to its usual setting – where “usual setting” means “fragile”.
The execution of Bali Nine pair Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan presents major problems for the Australian and Indonesian governments.
It now seems almost inevitable that two Australians, drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, will soon be executed in Indonesia. If this does happen, there will be public protests in Australia…
Australian prime minister Tony Abbott met with newly sworn Indonesian president Joko Widodo after his inauguration in Jakarta, inviting him to attend the G20 Summit in Brisbane. But Jokowi, as the new…
It’s not a good sign when parties cannot even agree on what they have just put their signatures to. On Thursday, Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop and her Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa…
Expressions of public outrage in Indonesia at allegations Australia had engaged in the phone tapping of Indonesian politicians – including president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and Cabinet members…
For anyone interested in Australia-Indonesia relations, nothing so characterises the phenomenon as a car on a roller-coaster. Any rise is followed inevitably by a fall. The ride is never boring, and in…
Evaluating the success of Tony Abbott’s first prime ministerial visit to Indonesia depends, of course, on what you saw as its objectives. Those with high hopes – that it would mark a breakthrough in discussions…
Australia’s recent federal election was – as usual – won and lost primarily on domestic policy issues. Unlike his predecessor, new prime minister Tony Abbott made no claims to great expertise in foreign…
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd’s so-called “PNG solution” to the asylum seeker issue has attracted much comment from within both Australia and Papua New Guinea. It has also stirred the pot in Indonesia…
In the coming days, prime minister Kevin Rudd will visit Indonesia to discuss asylum seeker policy with Indonesian officials, including Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Rudd’s visit will…
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman does not often make it into the Indonesian press, but he did in reports on the Queensland floods. These reports shared news space with coverage of the even more devastating…
Last week saw a shareholders’ meeting of the mining company Bumi plc in London. Shareholders meetings are hardly unusual events. But this was no ordinary shareholders meeting. It involved a major Indonesian…
If the lead stories in the digital and print media are anything to go by, Indonesians have little interest in the recent asylum seeker boat sinkings and the accompanying loss of life. Over the past couple…
Schapelle Corby’s fate may be the centre of public attention in Australia, but not here in Indonesia where I currently live and work. The hot topic here for the past few days has been whether or not Lady…
In his budget reply speech last week, opposition leader Tony Abbott said Indonesia was to be a “vital partner in Australia’s future”. He’s right, and for now, at the government-to-government level, Australia-Indonesia…
The recent announcement that foreign mining companies in Indonesia would have to sell at least 49% of their shares to local interests raises questions about whether this indicates a change of direction…
Indonesia has announced that it will finally join the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement in January next year, making it the last of the 12 states involved to formally to implement the agreement…
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