By Kevin Placek
While Abbott and Yudhoyono take the first steps in repairing frayed relations.
One of Tony Abbott’s key foreign policy slogans during last year’s election was “more Jakarta, less Geneva.” The Australian prime minister has been eager to live up to his promise, most recently meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on June 4 in an effort to improve bilateral relations.
The meeting in Batam was the first between the two leaders since Mr Abbott visited Indonesia in September 2013 and, perhaps more importantly, since revelations surfaced that the Australian Signals Directorate had conducted surveillance on a number of senior Indonesian officials in 2009, including tracking activity on Yudhoyono’s own mobile phone. The spying scandal undoubtedly damaged ties with Jakarta, but following Indonesian Ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema’s return to Canberra last week, both sides appear eager to repair the relationship.
Yudhoyono struck an optimistic tone on the spying issue, announcing after their meeting, “We have agreed to resolve such an issue that almost distracted our relationship.” The sentiment was shared by a forward-looking Abbott, who declared, “There have been a couple of issues between our countries over the last few months, but I am confident that they are well on the way to resolution.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat