Australia mulls new pact with RI

Australia mulls new pact with RI

Agence France Presse, Sydney

Australia said on Sunday it was considering signing a new security agreement with Indonesia to replace a treaty between the countries that was scrapped when Canberra sent troops into East Timor in 1999.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the government was aware that Indonesia president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for the security pact to be renewed last year on a trip to Australia.

But he said the two countries were more likely to negotiate a new treaty rather than simply reviving the old one, which he said was "a fairly meaningless document".

"We'd be looking at some kind of new agreement and a broader agreement with Indonesia," Downer told Channel Nine.

"But we've made no decision about whether we would negotiate such an agreement or not but we have been giving it some consideration, bearing in mind what Susilo said."

Downer said any new treaty would have to include an existing memorandum of understanding between the two countries on fighting terrorism.

He said the issue of a treaty and Australia's plan to base counter-terrorism flying squads in Southeast Asia were unlikely to be raised when newly re-elected Prime Minister John Howard attended Susilo's inauguration in Indonesia on Wednesday.

Downer was confident Australia's government would have a good relationship with Indonesia's new leader.

"He's committed to taking a strong stand against terrorism, against Jamaah Islamiyah, he's committed to having a very productive, a very constructive relationship with Australia," Downer said.

The countries have established close cooperation on counter- terrorism since the October 2002 Bali bombing by the al-Qaeda linked Jamaah Islamiyah, in which 88 Australians died.

Relations between Jakarta and Canberra were strained when Australia led a multinational peacekeeping force in East Timor in 1999 following the former Indonesian province's vote for independence.