SYDNEY: Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday (May 15) to discuss defence cooperation and global trade, after arriving in Jakarta on his first international visit since his re-election.
Albanese, sworn into office on Tuesday after his centre-left Labor party won an increased majority in parliament, said his visit showed the priority Canberra placed on defence and economic ties with Jakarta.
Albanese said the visit to one of the world's largest democracies was "an important step forward in the relationship".
"We're talking about further strengthening our defence ties and also how we put our economic partnership, how we can build on that with investment," he told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.
An informal meeting with Prabowo on Wednesday evening ahead of official talks showed the depth of the relationship, he said.
Australia struck a defence cooperation treaty with Indonesia last year, and Australia was hosting defence and maritime security training for Indonesian forces, Albanese said.
Indonesia dismissed reports last month that Russia had requested to base military aircraft in the archipelago's easternmost province of Papua, about 1,200km (750 miles) north of the Australian city of Darwin, where a US Marine Corps rotational force is based for six months of the year.
"Indonesia's answer is no, they've made it very clear," Albanese told reporters on Thursday when asked about the matter.
Russia will try to increase its influence in the region and Australia is responding by building ties with neighbours including Indonesia, he added.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst for defence, Euan Graham, said the Australia-Indonesia relationship has "avoided serious crisis for more than a decade, cooperation continues to move forward incrementally and there is greater stability than before".
Yet wide differences remain, he added.
"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. That's largely at odds with Canberra's world view," he said.
Albanese said the two leaders will also discuss global trade.
Indonesia is projected to be the fifth largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade.
Australia wants to increase economic ties with South-East Asia, as it seeks to diversify export markets to reduce reliance on China, and in response to trade uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Indonesia remains a "protected and challenging market" and a competitor to Australia in commodity exports, said Graham. - Reuters
