Joint Communiqué - The President of the Republic of Indonesia and the Prime Minister of Australia, Jakarta
- At the invitation of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Honourable Tony Abbott MP, paid his first official overseas visit to Indonesia on 30 September - 1 October 2013.
- Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the continued enhancement of the comprehensive partnership between the two neighbouring democracies, which is built on the basis of mutual respect and mutual commitments for progress, prosperity and security of both countries.
- The leaders reaffirmed the two countries’ continued adherence to the principle of respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as stipulated in the Lombok Treaty.
- The two leaders renewed their commitment to the strong bilateral political architecture of annual leaders’ meetings and strategic dialogue through 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministers’ meetings in addition to other regular Ministerial level meetings.
- The two leaders underscored the importance of continuing to work closely within the bilateral, regional and global frameworks in maintaining peace and stability as well as advancing and shaping their nations’ shared strategic and economic destinies to meet the challenges of the 21st century including energy security, food security, infrastructure and connectivity.
- Both leaders were determined to encourage enterprises of the two countries to increase and expand two-way trade and investment flows to support economic growth and development in both countries.
- The leaders looked forward to progressing negotiations on the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Partnership Agreement, including through the two pilot economic cooperation programs on agriculture and skills exchange, as identified by the Indonesia-Australia Business Partnership Group. They also agreed that all relevant Ministries would consult closely on approaches to encouraging greater investment between our two countries, including in agriculture, beef and cattle production.
- Prime Minister Abbott and President Yudhoyono encouraged business in both countries to support infrastructure development in Indonesia, particularly projects within the framework of MP3EI. President Yudhoyono welcomed the high-level business delegation accompanying the Prime Minister as a clear signal of Australia’s intent to boost business engagement with Indonesia.
- Both leaders welcomed Australia’s development program to enhance our partnership on Indonesia’s development priorities such as social protection, education, infrastructure, sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction.
- Both leaders welcomed the strengthened partnership in the fields of defence and security, including expanding cooperation within the framework of the Defence Cooperation Arrangement signed in September 2012. In particular, the two Leaders looked forward to continued close cooperation in natural disaster response, peacekeeping operations, cyber defence, maritime security, search and rescue and defence industry. Both Leaders also undertook to intensify police-to-police cooperation particularly in combating transnational crimes.
- As co-chairs of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, both leaders committed to further strengthening Indonesia’s and Australia’s leadership of regional efforts to counter people smuggling and trafficking in persons. The leaders reaffirmed their adherence to the principle of shared responsibility in addressing in particular people smuggling and called for a more integrated and comprehensive approach, which covers prevention, early detection and protection as well as prosecution, involving countries of origin, transit and destination. To this end, both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to working closely in pushing forward the full and effective implementation of the Jakarta Declaration, the outcome of the Special Conference on Irregular Movement of Persons held in Jakarta on 20 August 2013, as an integral part of the Bali Process. Leaders agreed people smuggling was not a problem that could readily be resolved by one country alone and recommitted to working together to address the problem through bilateral and regional frameworks.
- The two leaders committed to further strengthening bilateral consular cooperation to enable more effective delivery of consular services to their respective nationals. They underlined the importance of the annual bilateral consular consultations and agreed to deepen cooperation on crisis response planning and preparation.
- The two leaders also emphasized the significant role of the Indonesia-Australia Dialogue in increasing people-to-people links and called for joint concrete measures to follow up the recommendations produced by the second Indonesia-Australia Dialogue held in Sydney, in March 2013. In order to enhance the Dialogue as a tool to promote greater business linkages, Leaders called for greater business involvement in the next Dialogue, currently scheduled to take place in late 2014.
- President Yudhoyono welcomed Prime Minister Abbott’s invitation for Indonesia to be one of the first destinations for young Australians in the pilot implementation of the New Colombo Plan. This signature initiative would build deeper people-to-people links and allow Australia and Indonesia to approach our future engagement with optimism and confidence by encouraging the best and brightest young Australians to work and study in Indonesia. Leaders agreed that education, immigration, industry, employment and foreign ministries should work together to ensure smooth and early implementation of the programme. The two leaders welcomed the announcement of the establishment of an Australian Centre for Indonesian Studies, to be based at Monash University, to strengthen understanding of the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
- Both leaders also agreed that as part of the efforts to promote interest in Indonesian language proficiency among young Australians, they would work with the private sector to develop internship programs.
- Both leaders were encouraged by the intensifying Indonesia – Australia partnership in disaster rapid response within bilateral and multilateral frameworks such as the EAS and ARF. Both leaders also welcomed Indonesia-Australia co-chairmanship of the ARF workshop on consular responses to crises as a follow up to Indonesia-Australia’s EAS joint paper on disaster rapid response.
- Prime Minister Abbott congratulated President Yudhoyono on Indonesia’s strong leadership and hosting of a successful and productive APEC year in 2013. Both leaders reiterated their commitment to pursuing complementary policy agendas across Indonesia’s APEC chairmanship in 2013 and Australian G20 presidency in 2014. The two leaders also emphasized the importance of realizing greater connectivity and strong, mutually beneficial and sustainable trade and investment cooperation among nations in the region and were determined to strengthen coordination and cooperation toward these goals.
- Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the outcomes of the official visit of Prime Minister Abbott to Indonesia and were confident that they would lay down a stronger foundation for promoting closer bilateral ties and cooperation as well as for taking the Indonesia - Australia comprehensive partnership to a higher level. Both leaders said they looked forward to the next Annual Leaders’ Meeting, tentatively scheduled to take place in Australia in the first quarter of 2014.
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