Australia-RI defense pact defended<\/p>\n
SYDNEY (Agencies): Prime Minister Paul Keating sought
\nyesterday to hose down criticism here of Australia's defense pact
\nwith Indonesia, arguing that it would help the cause of the
\npeople of East Timor.<\/p>\n
As Catholic leaders and East Timorese refugees attacked
\nCanberra over what they saw as a "morally objectionable" treaty,
\nKeating said deeper links with Indonesia gave Canberra the chance
\nto improve the condition of the East Timorese.<\/p>\n
Under an agreement announced Thursday and seen by some as a
\nmajor foreign policy achievement for Keating, the two nations are
\ncommitted to "consult" each other if one is attacked and to
\nconsider measures that could see either defending the other
\nagainst attack.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, Keating will
\nmake his sixth visit as prime minister to Indonesia on Monday for
\nthe treaty signing ceremony to be attended by Indonesian
\nPresident Soeharto and Foreign Minister Ali Alatas.<\/p>\n
Keating said whatever possibilities the East Timorese had for
\nbetter lives were not going to be improved by "Australia turning
\nits back on Indonesia."<\/p>\n
Rather, they would be improved in the context "of a broader,
\ndeeper relationship between Australia and Indonesia," he said in
\na radio interview.<\/p>\n
Keating said the cause of East Timor had been set back by
\nAustralia's relations with Jakarta souring in the decade after
\nintegration.<\/p>\n
"By and large Australia turned its back on Indonesia ... it
\ntook Timor nowhere," he said. "I think this sort of model we
\nproduced yesterday is the right framework to be working in for
\nTimor."<\/p>\n
Asked earlier about the circumstances in which Australian
\nmilitary assistance might be given and if China posed a threat,
\nKeating disagreed with the word "threat", but acknowledged that
\nuneven economic growth in China could result in "tensions within
\nthe Chinese society".<\/p>\n
"The fact of the matter is that the way you maintain security
\nis that you cover these bases like ... free trade in goods and
\nservices, like proper regional and defense co-operation," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He disputed that the frequency of his visits to Jakarta and
\nthe fact that President Soeharto had never been to Australia
\nsuggested an uneven relationship, citing as benefits the Asia
\nPacific Economic Cooperation agreement and the defense pact which
\nwould have been "inconceivable just a few years ago."<\/p>\n
Evans said Thursday that there was no circumstance in which
\nAustralian troops could be engaged in East Timor as a result of
\nthe treaty, which he said referred to external and not internal
\nthreats.<\/p>\n
However, he agreed that when the integration took place in
\n1975 East Timor would "probably have been perceived as an
\nexternally derived source of potential instability for the
\nregion."<\/p>\n
In an interview broadcast here Thursday, Ali Alatas said East
\nTimor would continue to divide Australia and Indonesia despite
\nthe security agreement.<\/p>\n
"I have always maintained that, actually, we have a very good
\nrelationship between our two countries except for one issue,
\nwhich is East Timorese," Alatas told Australian national radio.<\/p>\n
But he said the agreement would dispel any thought that
\nIndonesia was a threat to Australia or that Australia was a
\nthreat to Indonesia.<\/p>",
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