Indonesia ‘In No Rush’ to Restore Australia Ties Over Spying

Jakarta Globe, December 8, 2013

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott, left, is welcomed by Indonesia’s
 President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as he arrives for the ABAC Dialogue with
 Leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Nusa Dua,
Bali in this Oct. 7, 2013 file photo. (Reuters Photo/Romeo Gacad)

The office of the Indonesian president suggested on Sunday that it was reluctant to immediately “normalize” the country’s strained bilateral relations with Australia after Prime Minister Tony Abbot said in a radio interview that the country would continue to gather intelligence on Indonesia.

Teuku Faizasyah, the Indonesian presidential spokesman for foreign affairs, said there was a “different nuance” to Abbott’s statement that contrasted with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s comments a day earlier during her meeting in Jakarta with Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa. Marty said after the meeting he was reassured Australia would cease targeted surveillance of Indonesian officials.

“We need to further study PM Abbott’s statement because it seems to have a different nuance to that of Foreign Minister Bishop,” Faizasyah said on Sunday.

“We won’t be in a rush to normalize the bilateral relations until we’re convinced that Australia sincerely wishes to move the relationship forward.”

Indonesia-Australia ties plumbed the lowest depth since the 1990s in the wake of allegations that Australia had wiretapped phone conversations of Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and key officials in 2009.

The response from the Indonesian government was to suspend cooperation in areas spanning people smuggling and intelligence sharing.

Yudhoyono has hashed out new “protocols and codes of conduct” as a precondition for the relationship to resume to business as usual. Marty, however, has referred to his Thursday meeting with Bishop, which focused on the code of conduct talks, as “very constructive and open”

“There is almost no problem that cannot be resolved,“ the Indonesian foreign minister said. “Australia has declared its regret about the incident that has disrupted and hurt Indonesia’s interests.”

On Friday, though, Abbot said in an interview with Australia’s Fairfax radio that Australia would not stop collecting intelligence on Indonesia.

Asked whether Australia had agreed to stop collecting intelligence on Indonesia, Abbott replied,

“No. And [Indonesia] certainly has not agreed to stop collecting intelligence on Australia.”

Although after that he added, “But we are close friends, we are strategic partners and I certainly want Australia to be a trusted partner of Indonesia and I hope Indonesia can be a trusted partner of Australia.”

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