With a common commitment to the pursuit of a peaceful, stable, secure and prosperous region, Australia and Indonesia Tuesday finalised negotiations on an upgraded Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) which the federal government is hailing as the most significant pact the two countries have ever signed.
Richard Marles MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence of Australia will be visiting Java, Indonesia next week to sign the defence agreement, a statement of strategic trust between the two countries.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement after meeting with Indonesia’s Defence Minister and President-elect Prabowo Subianto in Canberra.
“The new agreement is expected to facilitate more ambitious joint military exercises between the two countrie”, ABC News reported
Mr Albanese said the treaty-level agreement would “bolster our strong defence cooperation by deepening dialogue, strengthening interoperability and enhancing practical arrangements.
“The DCA will bolster our strong and robust defence cooperation by deepening dialogue, strengthening interoperability, and enhancing practical arrangements for the mutual benefit of both countries, as well as highlighting our shared commitment to working together to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region”, the joint statement read.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles called the agreement profoundly historic and the most significant agreement that our two countries have ever made.
“What this agreement will do is provide for much greater interoperability between our defence forces,” he said.
“It will provide for much more exercises between our defence forces, it will see us working together in the global commons to support the rules-based order and, importantly, it will allow us to operate from each other’s countries, he added.
Richard Marles acknowledged that this agreement is not an alliance as Indonesia has a proud history of being non-aligned but this is really a new level of strategic trust which exists between Australia and Indonesia. This is very much both countries saying to each other that we see our respective security as being embedded in each other.
