Security issues dominates RI, Australia ties<\/p>\n
Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Security issues would likely dominate this week's consultation
\nforum meeting between Indonesia and Australia, the first such
\ngathering for two years and one which comes amid a rise in the
\nterrorist threat and a looming war in Iraq, foreign affairs
\nanalysts said.<\/p>\n
Officially, the agenda is economics-heavy. Thirteen working
\ngroups met Sunday to iron out the details of cooperation in the
\nareas of agriculture, fisheries, investment, tourism and
\neducation.<\/p>\n
But how effective these economic cooperation initiatives would
\nbe is a question of security, according to the analysts.<\/p>\n
One example is Australia's travel advisory to its citizens
\nagainst visiting Indonesia.<\/p>\n
"How can anybody expect economic or social cooperation if
\nAustralians cannot even come to Indonesia," asked foreign affairs
\nanalyst Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the Indonesian Institute of
\nSciences (LIPI) on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The consultation forum will bring together 14 ministers from
\nboth countries. Indonesia and Australia have been holding
\nconsultation meetings since 1992.<\/p>\n
But the upcoming forum, which will start on Monday and end
\nwith a ministerial meeting on Tuesday, is the first following a
\ntwo-year break due in part to the political upheaval surrounding
\nthe ouster of then president Abdurrahman Wahid.<\/p>\n
The last meeting was held in Canberra in December 2000. At
\nthat time, Indonesia took particular issue with Australia's role
\nin helping East Timor secede in 1999, while Australia was
\nconcerned about its unstable giant neighbor, brimming with
\nhundreds of thousands of potential refugees.<\/p>\n
These issues have since been overshadowed by the threat of
\nterrorism. Security cooperation between the two countries has
\nimproved since the Oct. 12 Bali bombings last year, which claimed
\n202 lives, 89 of them Australians.<\/p>\n
But the terrorist strike has dealt a blow in other areas of
\ncooperation. Canberra imposed the travel warning in response to
\nthe attacks.<\/p>\n
Tourism, one of the areas of cooperation to be discussed at
\nthe forum, is the one most hurt by the travel warning. It has
\nkept Australian tourists away, helping prolong the slump in the
\ntourism sector.<\/p>\n
Bali accounts for about one third of total revenue in the
\ntourism sector, the country's biggest foreign exchange earner
\noutside of oil and gas.<\/p>\n
LIPI analyst Dewi said other areas of cooperation outside
\nsecurity would find it hard to develop if the travel warning was
\nnot lifted.<\/p>\n
While Canberra praised Indonesia's progress in capturing the
\nBali bomb suspects, this did little to convince the country to
\nrevoke the travel advisory.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has griped at this reluctance, suspecting that
\nAustralia feared a backlash against its citizens here due to the
\nlatter's support for a possible U.S.-led war in Iraq.<\/p>\n
"It's more complex now, the interface between global problems,
\nregional problems and domestic problems is far more frequent,"
\nexplained Dewi.<\/p>\n
She said Indonesia's policy on Australia was moving on the
\nright path. Some of the pressing issues in their ties, like the
\ntravel warning, were the consequence of Australia's position on
\nthe Iraqi issue, she said. "I would say it is more up to
\nAustralia ... it is a matter of choice."<\/p>\n
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) foreign
\naffairs analyst Rizal Sukma agreed, saying Indonesia was less
\nconcerned about Australia than it was the other way around.<\/p>\n
Australia, he said, saw itself positioned under an "arch of
\ninstability" in the form of its northern neighbor Indonesia.<\/p>\n
In that sense, he said, increasing security cooperation could
\ndo a great deal to improve bilateral ties.<\/p>\n
"There is much potential in cooperation on transnational crime
\nissues," he said.<\/p>\n
Successful efforts in the past to reduce people-smuggling and
\nthe progress made in the Bali bombing investigation could pave
\nthe way for more cooperation, he suggested.<\/p>",
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