Is the Gift to Indonesia of Hercules Aircraft Australia’s Version of the Trojan Horse?
In a bid to reduce Indonesia's anger at Australia over the spying row, Australian Defence Minister David Johnston announced that Canberra will give an old C-130 Hercules plane to Jakarta.
Before flying the aircraft to Indonesia, the jet was flown to Darwin to have its Australian markings removed and the plane was repainted with flags and symbols of the Indonesian military.
YouTube/Royal Australian Air Force
The original schedule was to hand over the aircraft to Indonesia at Williamtown in New South Wales this week, but events took over, causing the postponement of the turnover rites.
There is no definite date yet on when would the turnover be held, but the bigger question is would Indonesia trust to use that aircraft? Would it not be something they should be wary of and instead view it as a Trojan horse?
Literature tells the story of how the Greeks beat their enemies, the Trojans, by sending a gift giant wooden horse, which turned out to have soldiers hidden inside who came out at night and killed the Trojans and destroyed the city of Troy.
Hopefully, that would not be the case, otherwise it would bring back to ground zero the diplomatic relations between the two countries which had started to move towards healing the broken relationship after Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott send a letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promising that Australia would not do anything in the future to place their diplomatic ties in peril.
As it is, Indonesian politicians are saying it would take years before their country's ties with Australia would return to normal after the spying episode. Tubagus Hasnuddin, deputy chairman of the Indonesian parliamentary commission covering foreign affairs, it would take two to three years to bring their diplomatic ties to normal.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa added, quoted by ABC, "It's a process not a event so I'm not going to be particularly focused on when and how."