Security arrangements for Turnbull’s market visit worsened traffic congestion in the city centre, but Jakartans didn’t appear to hold it against the Australian prime minister and gave him a warm welcome.
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Ties between the neighbours sank to their lowest level in years under his conservative predecessor Tony Abbott, over rows about Jakarta’s execution of Australian drug smugglers, Canberra’s hardline policy of turning migrant boats back to Indonesia and espionage allegations.
Turnbull tried to keep the focus firmly on economic ties during the one-day visit to Jakarta, repeatedly stressing that both he and President Joko Widodo were businessmen who had later entered politics.
“The closer we are, the higher the intensity in our relationship, and the higher also the potential for frictions”, Widodo said at the presidential palace at the beginning of their meeting.
The visit comes just a week ahead of more than 300 business chiefs and four cabinet ministers taking part in Australia’s largest delegation to Indonesia.
The prime minister greeted Jakarta locals by launching into his familiar Australian stump speech – the “exciting” times prompted by innovation and technical disruption – and he noted that both he and Widodo (a furniture tycoon) shared a business background.
“Through the Indonesian Red Cross, we can reach out to the worst-affected communities by providing safe houses, ambulances, medical teams, emergency oxygen, and 30 thousand face masks”, Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson said as quoted by the Australian Embassy here on its official website on Wednesday. A year earlier, Indonesia had temporarily recalled its ambassador over the alleged phone bugging by Australia of then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and nine ministers in 2009.
But even though the most of the Australian public are against Indonesia’s policy on the death penalty, many are also anxious about their government’s harsh policy towards Indonesia. “The temperature is warm but the warmth of the people toward the President is much warmer”, Turnbull told reporters, while Jokowi was seen laughing as he heard Turnbull’s comment.
Australia and Indonesia lie next to each other in the southern Asia-Pacific region, a geopolitically significant area. Last month, Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, came to Indonesia for the ministerial meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
As military tensions between Beijing, Washington and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations mount in the South China Sea, a stable relationship between Indonesia and Australia is needed.
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In a sign of the new willingness to fix the relationship the men did not discuss asylum-seekers.
