RI to sign treaty with Australia
RI to sign treaty with Australia
BANGKOK (JP): Indonesia and Australia next week will sign a historic agreement which, for the first time provides a formal framework in which they can address common security problems, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono announced here yesterday.
Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating made a simultaneous announcement in Canberra on the Agreement on Maintaining Security, which will be signed in Jakarta on Monday by the two countries' foreign ministers.
Keating and President Soeharto will witness the signing as will their defense ministers and military chiefs.
Moerdiono, who is accompanying President Soeharto attending the ASEAN summit, told reporters that the two neighboring countries fully realized that the stability of the region and of the world was of common interest to Indonesia and Australia.
"Without national, regional and international stability, development cannot possibly proceed," he said.
He underlined that the agreement, the result of negotiations lasting a year and half, is not a defense or a military pact.
It will only formalize existing security cooperation programs between the two countries, including joint exercises and exchange visits of military officers from the two countries, he said.
"The agreement will contribute to the stability of the region and the world. It will strengthen the friendly ties that have been forged between us," he said, adding also that the two countries have agreed not to interfere in one another's affairs.
Indonesian officials in Bangkok said the agreement provides a forum for consultation and possible joint responses when the security of either state is threatened from external, but not from internal powers.
Consultations
The one-and-a-half page document provides for consultations between ministers on mutual security interests and the promotion of security cooperation through joint exercises, the officials said.
Keating told a news conference in Canberra that he proposed the agreement to President Soeharto, and that they have been consulting on this for the last 18 months, including when they met in Bali in September and in Osaka, Japan, in November.
Speaking after the draft agreement was approved by his cabinet, Keating described the accord as having "treaty status".
Keating plans to fly to Indonesia on Sunday. His entourage will include Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, Defense Minister Robert Ray and Australian Defense Force Chief Gen. John Baker AC.
The prime minister also attributed the agreement to Gen. Peter Gration, the former defense force chief who acted as a personal emissary in negotiating the agreement with Indonesia.
"The agreement asserts in formal terms for the first time that Australia and Indonesia have common interests in the peace and security of the region and that we intend to co-operate in support of those interests," Keating said, according to a transcript of his media conference, made available by the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
"The agreement is intended to make an enduring and powerful assertion within the region and outside that the long-term strategic interests of Australia and Indonesia coincide."
"It's not a defense pact or alliance with automatic support in the event of an attack," he added.
Australia was no threat to Indonesia nor is Indonesia a threat to Australia, he said. "This has been the basis of our defense planning for many years. But it is important that it is understood by the people of each country."
"You also remember me saying that the emergence of President Soeharto's New Order government in the 1960s was the event of most positive strategic significance to Australia in the post-war years," he said.
"The consequences for Australia of having a hostile or even unfriendly government in Indonesia over that period would have been incalculable including for the percentage of our national resources we would have spent, or would be spending, on defense.
Australia's small military is one of the most technically advanced in the region. Indonesia's armed forces, relatively small considering its large population, are under-equipped and geared largely to civic works and protecting internal security.
"I am convinced that Australia and Indonesia have much to contribute in partnership. I think we have a great opportunity here to shape the security environment of the region," Keating said. (mds/emb)
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