The Australian Government today welcomed the beginning of the inaugural Indonesia-Australia Dialogue, to be convened from 5-6 October in Indonesia.
Announced during the visit to Australia by President Yudhoyono in March 2010, the dialogue brings together leading Australians and Indonesians from a wide range of backgrounds to promote people-to-people links and foster a closer understanding of each other.
The Prime Minister said the inaugural Indonesia-Australia Dialogue was a significant development in our growing strategic partnership with Indonesia, our close neighbour and an important regional leader.
It complements annual leaders' summits, our governments' agreement to launch Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations and annual foreign and defence ministerial discussions - a format Australia has with close partners.
Foreign Minister Rudd said Indonesia was in the top tier of Australia's core relationships, and this forum would take the partnership to a new level.
The dialogue will promote a better understanding between Australia and Indonesia at the people-to-people level, one area of the relationship President Yudhoyono identified as lagging during his visit to Australia.
Twenty Australian participants have been drawn from a wide cross-section of Australian society including politics, business, academia and media. Participants were chosen because they are prominent in their fields and can help impart understanding of a modern, dynamic Australia to the Indonesian participants in the Dialogue.
The Australian participants will be led by co-convenor John McCarthy, AO. Mr McCarthy is a former diplomat with a distinguished career, including ambassadorial postings to India, the United States, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico and Vietnam.
Mr McCarthy's Indonesian counterpart, Dr Rizal Sukma, is the Executive Director of the prominent Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Jakarta.