Australian govt to honor security treaty with RI

Australian govt to honor security treaty with RI

SYDNEY (Reuter): Australia's new government will honor the security treaty between Australia and Indonesia made by the previous Labor administration, Defense Minister Ian McLachlan said yesterday.

McLachlan said the Liberal-National government, which swept to power in March, criticized the secrecy surrounding the signing of the treaty.

Last December then prime minister Paul Keating signed the security pact between the neighbors.

"We were taken off guard and we thought it was very unsatisfactory that the Keating government just made the decision in secret to sign that treaty," McLachlan told Australia television.

"However, we've had a look at the treaty and the treaty is really about mutual security, it's about cooperation, it's about talking, it's really a memorandum of understanding.

"There is nothing wrong with the treaty. It's a series of useful words and we'll work with it in the future."

McLachlan added the Australian government was unhappy with proposed Indonesian restrictions on shipping routes through the archipelago.

Indonesia wants foreign ships plying its waters to navigate through the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok, or the eastern Molucca Sea, to ease congestion along conventional routes.

Last month, U.S. and Indonesian officials held a fourth set of talks on Jakarta's proposal to restrict foreign ships to the three designated sea lanes around the archipelago.

The official Antara news agency last week quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Alatas as saying the Australian and U.S. governments had asked Indonesia for permission to use a fourth sea lane which passed through the Java Sea.

McLachlan confirmed the Australian government was discussing the issue with Indonesia.

"We would like more access obviously...and that's one of the things I suppose is borne out of the treaty is that conversations of this sort and perhaps some disagreements of this sort will be a lesser issue than the more important issue of security and cooperation," McLachlan said.