Australia, RI ties in new phase

Australia, RI ties in new phase

By Terry Friel

CANBERRA (Reuter): It was a sight that would have alarmed many Australians just a few years ago -- 150 crack Indonesian paratroopers dropping from the sky in the Australian Outback.

But Indonesia's involvement in the multinational Kangaroo '95 war games this year was just one of the latest, and more visible, signs of a dramatic bonding between Canberra and Jakarta in recent years.

That relationship was further cemented on Monday when Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating and Indonesia's veteran President Soeharto presided over the signing of an historic security pact between the two, vastly different, neighbors.

Keating hailed the pact, Indonesia's first with any nation, as an important step for regional peace and for two countries whose relations have often been tense.

"This is a major strategic development for Australia and for the region and a development of fundamental importance in our bilateral relationship with Indonesia," Keating said.

Indeed, defense ties have often fared best during trials in the overall relationship, underpinning broader interests.

Analysts and diplomats said the pact represented a maturing of the relationship and a major change in regional security.

"It doesn't necessarily mean a big change in the day-to-day way things are done, there's already more and more military cooperation between Indonesia and Australia," said a Canberra- based Asian diplomat.

"But this is a message to the region and to the world -- `We're good friends, we've got the same (strategic) interests, and we'll look after those interests'.

"And it formalizes what's already been going on, so that when Prime Minister Keating and President Soeharto go, what they've set in place will continue."

The treaty, and the recent appointment of a new Indonesian ambassador to Canberra, marks an easing of recent tensions.

The new treaty commits Jakarta and Canberra to regular ministerial consultations about security, to increasing cooperation and to consultations in the event of a threat to either country or to regional security.

"It's not a defense pact or alliance with automatic agreement on support in the event of an attack," Keating said.

Just 30 years ago, Indonesian and Australian troops faced off against each other in the jungles of Borneo during Jakarta's expansionist military adventure known as "Confrontation".

A decade ago relations were frozen, Australian journalists were thrown out of Jakarta and a planeload of tourists was turned back from Bali in a row sparked by a newspaper article about Soeharto's family business interests.

Now Australian and Indonesian troops could one day be called on to fight together against a common military threat.

Keating, facing a national election expected in March and trailing badly against his conservative opponents in opinion polls, acknowledges there will be opposition at home.

Critics say the treaty could see Australian soldiers called on to help Jakarta put down an internal revolt, and that it erodes Canberra's ability to tackle Indonesia over human rights concerns, particularly in the disputed Indonesian-ruled territory of East Timor.

But Keating, who has made Asia the focus of his foreign policy, said the pact did not lessen Australia's commitment to tackle human rights and did not apply to internal security.

Keating places great store in his personal relationship with 74-year-old Soeharto, who has ruled the world's fourth most populous nation for 30 years.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said the security pact signaled relations had deepened. But he added: "Please do not think because of this agreement, suddenly we will agree sweetly on everything that comes before us."