Indonesia signs security pact with Australia

JAKARTA, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Indonesia and Australia signed a security treaty on Friday that commits them to consult each other if either country is threatened, President Prabowo Subianto said after a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Jakarta.

The pact, the full details of which have not yet been disclosed, was first announced in November when Prabowo visited Australia.

“This agreement signals that Australia and Indonesia’s relationship is stronger than it has ever been,” Albanese said on Friday in Jakarta.

“The treaty is a significant extension of our existing security and defence cooperation. It demonstrates the strength of our partnership and depth of our trust and cooperation.”

Prabowo said the deal reflects the relationship between the two countries.

“To Indonesia, this reflects our full commitment to the good neighbour principles and our free and active foreign policy,” he said.

“Indonesia and Australia are destined to live side by side, and we chose to build that relationship on the foundations of trust and good intentions.”

Indonesia has a non-aligned foreign policy, pledging friendship with any country without joining any formal military bloc.

The treaty signed on Friday was modelled after a 1995 security agreement between the two countries, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said.

The 1995 deal was withdrawn in 1999 after Australia led a United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor, which had plunged into violence as it sought independence from Indonesia.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto in Jakarta and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by David Stanway)