Prime Minister Anthony Albanese landed in Jakarta this morning and met with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to strengthen ties between their respective countries and discuss issues including trade and security.
Indonesia has had a long-standing and complicated relationship with Australia, but there were signs of improvement during Albanese’s last term, including a defence cooperation agreement signed last year.
It has been a tradition since John Howard’s government for newly elected prime ministers to choose Jakarta as their first international visit. However, Peter Dutton promised that if won the election, he would break with tradition and go to Washington instead.
Before boarding a plane in Perth Albanese explained why Jakarta is his “first port of call”.
“There’s no more important relationship than we have with Indonesia,” he said.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst for defence Euan Graham told Reuters that while Australia and Indonesia have much in common, the nations disagree on some key issues.
“Jakarta sees China and Russia as vectors of opportunity more than threats and views the US and China primarily through the same lens of great power rivalry,” he said. ”
That’s largely at odds with Canberra’s world view.”
Last month there were talks about Russian military base in Indonesia that didn’t eventuate.
Gatra Priyandita, of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, thinks that hosting any foreign military base is “toxic” for Indonesia and talking about it might “touch a nerve”.
“But not talking at all about the extent of Indonesia’s diplomatic and military relationships with China and Russia is not in Australia’s interests either,” he said.
Indonesia held naval exercises with Russia in November 2024 and joined the BRICS Russia-China alliance in January 2025. However, the partnership between Indonesia and Australia is also being strengthened.
Albanese will spend one full-day in Jakarta, then he will go to Holy See to attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV. On return to Australia, he will stay in Singapore for one day.
Photo: Official portrait of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese by Australian government found HERE and used under Creative Commons License. This image hasn’t been modified.
