Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta to conduct extensive bilateral talks aimed at strengthening the Australia-Indonesia partnership.
Yesterday's meeting follows on from President Yudhoyono's historic visit to Australia in March 2010 and the commitment made by the leaders to meet annually.
Topics covered at the meeting included bilateral discussions on trade, investment and development assistance, regional issues such as terrorism and people smuggling and global issues such as the upcoming G20 agenda.
The Prime Minister and President agreed to start negotiations for an Indonesia-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement which will help build on our trade and investment links.
The two leaders agreed on a new $500 million Education Partnership under which Australia will construct or upgrade up to 2,000 schools across Indonesia.
This new five year program will build on the success of previous partnerships between the two nations to help Indonesia reach its goal of providing every child with nine years of education by 2015.
The program will also improve the quality of school management by training 293,000 school principals, school supervisors and district education officials.
The Prime Minister also announced the Australian Government would provide an additional $1.1 million in development assistance to support the not-for-profit SurfAid to help the Mentawai Islands over the next year, following the recent tsunami.
These funds are in addition to Australia's initial support package of up to $1 million announced last week for relief and recovery efforts.
The Prime Minister raised the matter of Schapelle Corby with the Indonesian President, following which President Yudhoyono proposed the development of a bilateral prisoner transfer agreement which could apply to cases such as Ms Corby's.
These discussions may take some time and could require legislation to be passed by the Indonesian Parliament however the Prime Minister welcomed this significant development.
The Prime Minister briefed President Yudhoyono on progress on Australia's proposal for a regional protection framework for asylum seekers and both parties agreed that discussions on the framework would continue in the region through the Bali Process and beyond.
Ms Gillard also met with the Speaker of the People's Representative Assembly Mr Marzuki Alie and urged the Indonesian Parliament to consider passing a law to criminalise people smuggling.
During the visit the Prime Minister paid her respects to Indonesia's fallen soldiers and other national figures by laying a wreath at Indonesia's Kalibata Heroes' Cemetery and presented Australia Asia Awards to three Indonesian students to undertake doctoral studies in Australia.