Over the last two days the Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin met with his Indonesian counterpart, the Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces General Moeldoko, to hold the second annual Australia Indonesia High Level Committee.
Air Chief Marshal Binskin said Indonesia was an important regional defence partner for Australia for reasons of mutual interest and geographic proximity.
“As neighbours we share a common interest in the stability of our region and confront many of the same security challenges; including maritime security, terrorism and transnational crime. It is important that we continue to work together to effectively counter these threats,” Air Chief Marshal Binskin said.
“Our bilateral defence relationship has proven resilient over time, founded on close people-to-people links. These links are strengthened by a broad range of activities, including over 150 training positions offered to Indonesian military officers each year.
“Australia remains committed to a broad based, long term defence relationship with Indonesia, and we look forward to a busy engagement program in 2015”.
During their meetings, Air Chief Marshal Binskin and General Moeldoko discussed their priorities for the bilateral military-to-military relationship, and agreed on a forward engagement program including joint exercises, student and instructor exchanges, policy and intelligence exchanges and a regular pattern of senior strategic dialogues.