Australia's Governor General Sam Mostyn showing a selfie to Australia's re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre) and his cabinet members after a swearing-in ceremony at Government House in Canberra on May 13, 2025. - AFP
JAKARTA: Strengthening economic cooperation between Jakarta and Canberra is expected to be among the priorities discussed during the meeting between President Prabowo Subianto and recently reelected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Jakarta in the coming days.
On Tuesday (May 13), the Cabinet Secretariat posted on its official Instagram account that Prabowo will host Albanese in the State Palace in Jakarta during the prime minister’s visit to Indonesia from Wednesday to Friday.
Albanese, who was sworn in along with his ministers on Tuesday, will “depart for Indonesia on the evening of May 14,” as written in the Cabinet Secretariat’s post.
Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya also met on Monday with Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Roderick Brazier, who just gave his letter of credentials to Prabowo last Tuesday, to talk about Albanese’s visit plan in Jakarta.
A visit to Asia, especially Indonesia, as their first bilateral trip destination is a diplomatic tradition for every newly elected Australian prime minister.
But Albanese has signalled that his Jakarta visit would be beyond ceremonial in nature, emphasising Australia’s deep interest in engaging further with its neighbour as a necessity at a time of economic turbulence.
“Tomorrow I will travel to Indonesia to meet with our friend the President and to renew that acquaintance,” Albanese said during a parliamentary meeting in Canberra on Tuesday.
“It is important, our engagement internationally [...]. We know that international trade and economic circumstances are difficult and turbulent, and our job is to navigate those seas whilst keeping our eye on the horizon,” he continued.
His second visit to Jakarta comes amid global economic upheaval, sparked by United States President Donald Trump and his “reciprocal tariff” trade policy, which has further destabilized the global economic system already hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and wars in Europe and the Middle East.
The Labor Party politician said in an interview last week that his Jakarta visit would affirm Canberra’s stance that there was “no more important relationship than [with] Indonesia”, and that it would be “a signal to our region of the importance that [Australia] places” on it.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has expressed hopes that the visit would “produce several concrete agreements that could bring direct benefits to the people of both countries”, according to the Cabinet Secretariat.
The Foreign Ministry separately detailed further economic items slated to be discussed between the two leaders, which would include food security, energy, trade and other bilateral priorities.
“The visit, which is the first visit conducted by PM Albanese after his reelection, is an indication of the two countries’ strategic closeness,” the ministry wrote in a statement.
Given their geographical proximity and shared status of being the region’s major emerging powers, Indonesia and Australia have traditionally maintained close ties with each other, including in the matters of security and defence.
While each country has chosen to respond differently to the rivalry between the US and China in the region, the two neighbours have joined hands to strengthen their military ties under the same interest of self-preservation, as shown through last year’s historic Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA).
The agreement, brokered by then-defence minister Prabowo, has been hailed by Canberra as the “deepest and most significant” defence deal in the two countries’ bilateral relationship.
The DCA will allow more complex joint activities and exercises, as well as granting their militaries a pass to “operate from each other’s countries for mutually determined cooperative activities”.
But with today’s quickly changing international norms, experts suggest that the time has come for Indonesia and Australia to expand their relationship beyond defence.
An emphasis on the economy for this week’s bilateral meeting is a reflection of the two countries’ awareness that they can no longer rely on traditional trading partners.
“Australia, specifically, must catch up in its economic relationship with Indonesia, looking beyond the existing emphasis on defense,” international relations expert Ahmad Rizky M. Umar from Aberystwyth University told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
“Canberra has been seen as attempting to wean off its dependency on the US, especially with Washington’s tariffs hitting Australia quite significantly. Albanese has to seek new economic partners, and prioritize alternative Asian countries.”
Australia, which has not been spared by the US’ blanket 10-per cent tariffs on foreign goods, has for the past month negotiated with Washington for a better trade deal.
Australia and Indonesia may look into cooperation on critical minerals to strengthen their economic relationship, Umar went on to say, given the two countries’ abundant supply of the commodities.
In 2023, on the eve of the third anniversary of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), Albanese agreed several new bilateral initiatives on green energy and critical minerals with Jakarta, including the supply of Australia’s highly sought-after lithium to Indonesia for electric vehicle battery developments.
The deal, inked by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) and the West Australian government, was described by Indonesia as an “essential step” in realising its ambitions to capture the lion’s share of the EV supply chain.
Albanese said then there were “few more important trading partners to us than Indonesia”. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
