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.