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.