Australian Labor vows to make RI a priority

Australian Labor vows to make RI a priority

Reuters, Canberra

An Australian Labor government would put ties with Indonesia at
the top of its foreign policy agenda and boost engagement with
Asia if it won the Nov. 10 elections, the opposition party's
foreign affairs spokesman said.

Labor's Laurie Brereton said it was vital that Australia
strengthened ties with Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim
nation, to stop the flow of boatpeople and ensure Canberra's role
in the U.S.-led war against terrorism did not offend.

"Australia's national security and the success of the present
campaign against terrorism require that we do everything we can
to build a new cooperative relationship with our nearest Asian
neighbor," Brereton told the Foreign Correspondents Association
on Wednesday.

Brereton promised to travel to Jakarta within 10 days of the
formation of a Labor government. Labor leader Kim Beazley has
said a visit to Jakarta to meet Indonesian President Megawati
Soekarnoputri would be his first overseas trip if elected
Australian prime minister.

Australia's historically fragile ties with Jakarta were
strained in 1999 when Canberra led an international peace mission
into East Timor after a vote for independence from Indonesia
triggered widespread violence and destruction.

Although the relationship has recovered, it is still
problematic and Australia's conservative government has been
criticized for not working out ways with Jakarta to stop
boatloads of asylum seekers leaving Indonesia for its remote
northwest coast.

The flow of asylum seekers has made international headlines in
recent months after Australia began turning away the boats. This
week, more than 350 mostly Iraqi asylum seekers drowned after
their overcrowded boat sank in the Java Sea off Indonesia.

Brereton, releasing Labor's foreign policy platform,
reaffirmed his party's commitment to Asian engagement, pursued by
former Labor prime minister Paul Keating before he was ousted by
the Liberal/National government in 1996.

Brereton accused Australian Prime Minister John Howard of
pulling back from Asia over the past five years and reducing
Australia's regional influence.

"We are unapologetic believers in the principle that
Australia's future lies in our own region and we therefore commit
to broadening and deepening Australia's Asian linkages at all
levels," he said.

But Brereton said it was understandable and correct that the
government was currently focused on events in Afghanistan.

Labor has given its backing to Howard's unequivocal support of
the United States after the Sept. 11 hijack attacks on New York
and Washington.

About 1,550 Australian defense personnel, four fighter
aircraft, three frigates and two refueling aircraft are set to
join the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan by the mid-November.

However, Brereton said Australia needed to ensure the campaign
against terrorism was matched by renewed efforts to address
circumstances that breed extremism.

"We must recognize the on-going danger posed by the situation
in the Middle East and make every effort to ensure that the
Middle East peace process is started again," he said.