Indonesia Airs Support for Aussie-U.S. Security Pact, Expresses Grave Concern on People Smuggling
Indonesia has expressed full support for the growing regional cooperation between Australia and the United States, with key ministers of the populous Asian country assuring Canberra that its security pact with America poses no serious problem among emerging power-players in the region.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, in Australia since Wednesday on official visit, gave assurance to their counterparts, Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Defence Minister Stephen Smith, that the planned deployment of U.S. forces in Australian territories will not create any problem between the two nations.
"We don't have a problem at all with the placement of the U.S. Marines in Darwin," Mr Yusgiantoro was reported by Agence France Presse as saying on Thursday after meeting with Messrs Carr and Smith at the Parliament.
If any concerns were raised over the imminent stationing of U.S. Marines in Darwin and the use of other Australian defence installations by U.S. forces, which was formally announced by U.S. President Barack Obama in November 2011, all of them have been addressed by the Australian government, according to Mr Natalegawa.
"There is a general wish on the part of both countries to ensure that our region, namely the Asia-Pacific, continues to remain benign and peaceful and that we not revert to any conditions that would jeopardize that kind of already positive outlook," the Indonesian foreign minister said.
Australian and U.S. officials have maintained that the closer military ties between the two countries was largely meant to ensure that the balance of power of in the Asia-Pacific region would not be disturbed.
Observers, however, were convinced that the planned military exercises were aimed at containing the growing influence of China in the region.
But Indonesia appears unsettled by the U.S.-Aussie security pact, with Mr Natalegawa even offering his country's active participation in the disaster relief training that U.S. and Australian officials said would be an essential part of the two countries' future military exercises.
On a separate note, Mr Natalegawa stressed that he is more worried on how Australia is handling the issue of asylum seekers attempting to reach Australian soils, with the Coalition bent on simply turning back boats apprehended by authorities.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has called on the Labor-led government to simply implement the previous policy of Australia, which was to tow boats back to Indonesia.
The Australian Navy will be tasked to perform the task, Mr Abbott said, and boats to be towed back are those flying Indonesian flag and coming from the country.
"We've turned around the boats before, we can turn them around again," Mr Abbott was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying on Friday.
The federal government, however, balked at the proposal, describing it as a very dangerous procedure.
The best solution to the problem, according to Mr Natalegawa, is for governments to collaborate and in this particular case, it would be best to just apply the so-called 'Bali Process'.
"That is where we are coming from in terms of our approach, and it provides a hint of how we feel about policies that simply pass the nature of the problem to a different phase of that chain," Mr Natalegawa told the Herald Sun.
While acknowledging that people smuggling has become a pestering problem in the region, Mr Natalegawa stressed that dealing with the question "would be impossible and not advisable even, to simply shift the nature of the challenge from one end of the continuum to the other."