Australia-RI defense pact defended

Australia-RI defense pact defended

SYDNEY (Agencies): Prime Minister Paul Keating sought
yesterday to hose down criticism here of Australia's defense pact
with Indonesia, arguing that it would help the cause of the
people of East Timor.

As Catholic leaders and East Timorese refugees attacked
Canberra over what they saw as a "morally objectionable" treaty,
Keating said deeper links with Indonesia gave Canberra the chance
to improve the condition of the East Timorese.

Under an agreement announced Thursday and seen by some as a
major foreign policy achievement for Keating, the two nations are
committed to "consult" each other if one is attacked and to
consider measures that could see either defending the other
against attack.

Accompanied by Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, Keating will
make his sixth visit as prime minister to Indonesia on Monday for
the treaty signing ceremony to be attended by Indonesian
President Soeharto and Foreign Minister Ali Alatas.

Keating said whatever possibilities the East Timorese had for
better lives were not going to be improved by "Australia turning
its back on Indonesia."

Rather, they would be improved in the context "of a broader,
deeper relationship between Australia and Indonesia," he said in
a radio interview.

Keating said the cause of East Timor had been set back by
Australia's relations with Jakarta souring in the decade after
integration.

"By and large Australia turned its back on Indonesia ... it
took Timor nowhere," he said. "I think this sort of model we
produced yesterday is the right framework to be working in for
Timor."

Asked earlier about the circumstances in which Australian
military assistance might be given and if China posed a threat,
Keating disagreed with the word "threat", but acknowledged that
uneven economic growth in China could result in "tensions within
the Chinese society".

"The fact of the matter is that the way you maintain security
is that you cover these bases like ... free trade in goods and
services, like proper regional and defense co-operation," he
said.

He disputed that the frequency of his visits to Jakarta and
the fact that President Soeharto had never been to Australia
suggested an uneven relationship, citing as benefits the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation agreement and the defense pact which
would have been "inconceivable just a few years ago."

Evans said Thursday that there was no circumstance in which
Australian troops could be engaged in East Timor as a result of
the treaty, which he said referred to external and not internal
threats.

However, he agreed that when the integration took place in
1975 East Timor would "probably have been perceived as an
externally derived source of potential instability for the
region."

In an interview broadcast here Thursday, Ali Alatas said East
Timor would continue to divide Australia and Indonesia despite
the security agreement.

"I have always maintained that, actually, we have a very good
relationship between our two countries except for one issue,
which is East Timorese," Alatas told Australian national radio.

But he said the agreement would dispel any thought that
Indonesia was a threat to Australia or that Australia was a
threat to Indonesia.