Relations between Australia and Indonesia in recent years
have largely floundered. Both governments have focused more on their bilateral
dynamics, which amid differing values have resulted in an unstable relationship
that blows hot and cold.
This narrow
focus has made Australia and Indonesia neglect that they actually share many
similar priorities in the regional context.
On
issues such as asylum seekers and capital punishment, Australia and Indonesia
may be at odds. But on major strategic questions facing the region, the two
nations are in broad agreement.
Australia
and Indonesia should gradually reframe the relationship by giving further
weight to their shared interests within the broader regional context.
Refocusing away from bilateral differences and towards regional similarities is
one of the best paths toward a more stable and resilient Australia-Indonesia
relationship.
Shared regional concerns
For the
last half-century, Australia and Indonesia have had the same approach to most
of the region’s major geopolitical issues.
Since
Indonesia’s anti-communist turn in the mid-1960s, both Jakarta and Canberra
have continued to favor the regional order that emerged after the United
States’ rapprochement with China.
While
its formal non-aligned status precludes it from openly saying so, Indonesia
broadly maintains a preference for something akin to the current order in East
Asia, resting on US primacy.
Despite
initial protestations at not being consulted beforehand, Indonesia has
indicated that it is untroubled by the basing of US marines in Darwin and the
general strategic rebalancing to Asia-Pacific undertaken by the Obama
administration. This aligns with the geopolitical preferences of US-ally
Australia.
With
China’s growing regional heft and continuing belligerence in the South China
Sea, Australia and Indonesia share a similar concern on the challenge China
poses to peace and stability in region.
Australia
and Indonesia have both welcomed China’s increasing role in regional trade and
investment. China is the major trading partner of each country and both were
quick to sign up as founding members to China’s Asian Investment Infrastructure
Bank, despite Japanese and US reluctance.
But
Australia and Indonesia are anxious about China’s recent behavior in the South
China Sea. The rising power’s artificial-island-building and expansive claims,
recently ruled invalid by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague only
to be dismissed by Beijing, are a shared concern.
The two
countries also support the region’s open trade regime, deeming it vital for
economic development. Canberra and Jakarta have declared support for both the
Chinese-favored, Association of Southeast Asian Nations-led Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade agreement and the US-favored
Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Inclusive
regional institutions are also a point of convergence for Australia and
Indonesia. Both countries see them as important to maintaining regional peace
and security. Jakarta was one of the key supporters of expanding the East Asia
Summit, now the region’s premier international forum, to include Australia.
When it
comes to the threat of jihadist terrorism, Australia and Indonesia are both
committed to the fight. Jakarta has been very active and successful in
destroying regional terrorist networks based on Indonesian soil. As a target of
these networks, Australia has welcomed Indonesia’s activism in fighting
regional terrorism.
As
democratic middle powers that have enjoyed the security and prosperity of the
existing regional order, Canberra and Jakarta have a shared interest in seeing
peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific that is based on respect for
international law and well-established norms of behavior.
A path forward for the relationship
Reframing
the relationship toward these shared regional concerns offers a path forward.
Creating
a greater mutual understanding of how Australia and Indonesia share
complementary priorities will help bolster a relationship in need of greater
resilience against the inevitable bilateral waxes and wanes. Fortunately, this
has become increasingly recognized by leaders in both countries.
Prime
Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in his lecture at the Lowy Institute in March,
declared that the Australia-Indonesia relationship is, "… increasingly
defined by similarities and complementarities more than differences."
He then
followed by immediately pivoting to the region, "Now the greatest run of
peace and prosperity this planet has ever known — centered right here in our
Indo-Pacific region — was all made possible by the system of rules and
institutions which the United States and its allies built from the ashes of
world war two."
These
sentiments were echoed only a month later by former Indonesian president Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono in a speech addressing this year’s Australian Defense White
Paper, "Both Jakarta and Canberra are seeing more and more of their
interests converging: in economics, regional security, combating terrorism and
others."
There is
plenty of space to build a stronger partnership between us. Indonesia and
Australia can work together to promote a rules based world order.
However,
demonstrative of the neglect the two countries' geopolitical context receives,
Yudhoyono’s speech was poorly attended, with no senior politicians in the
audience.
Turnbull
has made a start in the right direction. But without a broader recognition of
the shared strategic priorities between the two nations, the relationship risks
being run off the rails by the next asylum seeker boat or execution.
Reframing
the way the relationship is thought about toward a greater recognition of
shared geopolitical interests is the best way for these two neighbors to forge
a stronger and more resilient relationship.
David
Willis is a PhD candidate in international relations at Flinders University
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