‘New era’: Australia, Indonesia strike surprise security treaty

Australia and Indonesia will commit to consult each other if they face a security threat under a landmark new treaty that ties the two neighbours closer together than at any time in their history.

In a major foreign policy achievement for Anthony Albanese, the prime minister declared on Wednesday that relations between Australia and Indonesia have entered a “new era” with the treaty.

The treaty process began with a proposal by Australia when Albanese visited Indonesia for his first overseas trip since his May election victory, according to sources familiar with the negotiations but not able to speak publicly.

During that trip Albanese told counterpart Prabowo Subianto that he wanted to go further than previous agreements, and the leaders agreed to delegate their foreign ministers to negotiate the details.

The treaty announcement came as former prime minister Paul Keating - a champion of closer ties with Indonesia - blasted the outgoing president of the Returned and Services League (RSL) for criticising the Albanese government for its level of defence spending in a Remembrance Day speech in Canberra.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy, has jealously guarded its non-aligned status as it balances relations between China and the United States.

There have also been significant moments of tension between Indonesia and Australia, including over East Timorese independence, asylum seekers and death sentences for Australian drug smugglers.

“This is a watershed moment in the Australia-Indonesia relationship,” Albanese said, standing beside Indonesian Prabowo to make the surprise announcement at the Garden Island naval base in Sydney.

“This treaty represents a major extension of our existing security and defence co-operation. It shows the relationship is as strong as it has ever been.

The details of the agreement were tightly held by a small group of officials until the last moment, preventing them from being leaked to the media.

The treaty falls short of a formal military alliance, meaning it is not as extensive as that reached earlier this year between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

But it is still a significant foreign policy moment given Indonesia’s huge population, economic heft and military power.

Pressed to explain whether the treaty was likely to mean Australian military forces would be deployed to defend Indonesia in the case of an attack by China, Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not directly say who the threats against either country would be.

“We want to anchor our national security in our region, and we want to strengthen the relations with our region,” Wong told Sarah Fergusson on ABC’s 7.30.

“What it means is that we are giving a commitment to one another as neighbours, to consult each other, to work together and to cooperate.

“It recognises that our security is shared, and we’ve described it as the treaty for foreign security and that is because we recognise that what happens to Indonesia, what happens to Australia, affects each other. It does leave both countries able to make our own sovereign decisions.”

The treaty will commit the leaders of Australia and Indonesia to regularly discuss security issues and consult each other in the event of a threat to either nation’s security or a mutual threat to consider what actions should be taken in response.

The agreement also commits the nations to agree to promote “mutually beneficial co-operative activities in the security field”.

Albanese said he hoped to travel to Indonesia in January to sign the pact after it is approved by both national parliaments.

Prabowo said the agreement will “let us face our destiny with the best of intentions”, adding that in Indonesian culture there is a saying that “good neighbours will help each other in times of difficulties”.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the treaty will “reflect the close friendship, partnership and deep trust between Australia and Indonesia, under our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

“Australia and Indonesia both benefit from each other’s stability and sense of security.”

The treaty builds upon an Australia-Indonesia defence co-operation agreement struck in August 2024 and the 2006 Howard-era Lombok Treaty.

Greg Barton, the rector of Deakin University’s Indonesia campus, said the treaty was a “big deal for a country that has traditionally resisted joining camps and coalitions”.

“Indonesia has believed that its foreign policy should be fluid, free and flexible,” he said. “To formally reach an agreement like this doesn’t break with that but it does show them putting meat on the bones of the relationship with Australia.”

Lowy Institute program director Sam Roggeveen, who has advocated a new military pact with Indonesia, welcomed deeper co-operation with Australia’s closest Asian neighbours.

“As much as possible, Australia should be seeking the type of agreement with Indonesia as the ANZUS pact it has with the United States,” he said.

In a scathing statement issued on Wednesday, Keating called departing RSL president Greg Melick a “dope” for saying during a Remembrance Day ceremony that Australia was not spending enough on defence to keep the nation safe.

Accusing Melick of abusing “the quiet solemnity” of the memorial day, Keating said: “He wants the public to believe that we have only minutes to midnight before we witness an attack on our shores. Notwithstanding that the Chinese have never, ever threatened us.

“His utterances are simply the strategic jottings of a dope.”

When asked if she had received an answer to whether Australian taxpayer money had been used to fund criminal bikie gangs in Nauru, Wong told Fergusson on Wednesday night she would leave it up to President David Adeang to respond.

“I think President Adeang understands Australia’s position,” Wong said, declining to say whether the funds had indeed gone to gangs.

“I met with him and quite a number of delegates. We did discuss these issues, I made our expectations about those matters clear.

“Our position, obviously, is one that we expect Australian funds to be used in the appropriate way.”

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