Indonesian and Australian leaders signed a bilateral security treaty Friday that both governments say will deepen ties between the often-testy neighbors.
The treaty was signed in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, three months after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto announced in Sydney that negotiations on the pact had been substantively concluded, highlighting their ambition to better utilize their countries’ past security agreements inked in 1995 and 2006.
Albanese hailed the signing as a significant extension of existing security and defense cooperation. The text of the treaty has not been released.
“It demonstrates the strength of our partnership and the depth of our trust,” Albanese said at a news conference with Prabowo at the Merdeka Palace. “This agreement signals that Australia and Indonesia’s relationship is stronger than it has ever been.”
Albanese arrived in Jakarta late Thursday for a three-day state visit, his fifth official trip to Southeast Asia’s largest economy. His office described the visit as part of a broader push to expand cooperation beyond security into trade, investment, education and development.
He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who described the treaty as the most important step in the bilateral partnership in three decades.
Prabowo called Australia “one of Indonesia’s closest neighbors and a strategic partner,” saying the treaty “reflects our shared resolve to work closely to safeguard our respective national security and to make a concrete contribution to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
“Indonesia and Australia are destined to live side by side, and we choose to build that relationship on mutual trust and good faith,” Prabowo said, “We believe this treaty will be a key pillar for stability and cooperation in our region.”
Albanese said regional peace and stability are best achieved by “acting together,” and announced new security initiatives including embedding a senior Indonesian officer in the Australian Defense Force, supporting joint defense training facilities, and expanding military education exchanges.
Analysts said the treaty is becoming increasingly important to Australia while tensions with China in the region are growing. However, they said it is likely to echo elements of a 1995 security agreement signed by then-Prime Minister Paul Keating and Indonesia’s former authoritarian leader Suharto, Prabowo ’s former father-in-law.
That agreement committed both nations to consult on security issues and respond to adverse challenges. but Indonesia terminated it in 1999 after Australia led a peacekeeping mission into East Timor. The two countries later rebuilt security ties with the 2006 Lombok Treaty, which was expanded in 2014.
Susannah Patton of the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, said the new agreement is largely about political commitment rather than concrete obligations.
She described it as a “symbolic agreement,” noting that a separate 2024 defense cooperation accord focused more on practical military collaboration.
Patton said the treaty sits below Australia’s alliance with the United States and its security agreement with Papua New Guinea, and is unlikely to clarify whether Indonesia would come to Australia’s defense in the event of a regional conflict.
“So it’s very much not a mutual defense treaty because I think that would not be politically acceptable to Indonesia as a non-aligned country,” Patton said.
Despite that, she praised the agreement as a huge success for Albanese, because not many people would have predicted this kind of agreement would be possible with Indonesia as a non-aligned country with “a very big difference between the way that Australia and Indonesia see the world.”
She said that Australia has very much taken advantage of the fact that the Southeast Asia country is now under Prabowo, a president who is really much more willing to break with Indonesian foreign policy tradition and to strike leader-led agreements.
While Indonesia is often described as one of Australia’s most important neighbors, the relationship has seen periodic strains. Past disputes have included Australian intelligence wiretapping allegations involving Indonesia’s former president, the execution of Australian drug smugglers, and tensions over people smuggling.
