Indonesia and Australia will hold their largest defence exercises in November after signing a new security pact seen to usher closer ties for the two nations with a strained history.
The joint drills to be conducted in the East Java city of Surabaya will involve some 2,000 members of defence forces from both nations, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and concurrent defence chief Richard Marles said on Thursday in Magelang, a city in Central Java. He spoke after signing the pact with his Indonesian counterpart and incoming leader Prabowo Subianto.
“It’s across fields of air, land and sea,” Marles said, describing the event as the “most complex exercise that we will have seen.” The drills will involve Australia’s amphibious assault ships and F-35 fighter jets, and will also include activities to fight cyberattacks, he said.
Marles and Prabowo signed the defence cooperation agreement a week after Indonesia’s president-elect met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Australia to finalise the deal seen as a “vital plank” in the two nation’s defence ties.
The pact comes as Australia seeks to deepen its alliance in Southeast Asia that saw Albanese attend the Asean Summit, visit the Philippines and upgrade ties with Vietnam over the past year.
Indonesia and Australia are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic ties this year, in a relationship that has swung from extreme tension during the Cold War and following the downfall of former dictator Suharto to relatively warmer ties in recent years.
“I look forward to continuing, supporting and enriching this relationship in the months and years to come,” Prabowo said.
Indonesia has long maintained an open foreign policy approach, and Marles told Prabowo that Australia understands this non-alignment stance.
“That is the heritage of this country, and we respect it,” Marles said. “It is very much in Australia’s interest to have a non-aligned Indonesia as our closest neighbour.”
