Australia’s new security agreement with Indonesia comes at a critical moment. Jakarta’s non-aligned tradition offers lessons for a country still tied to a lopsided alliance with the US.

On 12 November, Australia and Indonesia announced a  security agreement between the two governments. The agreement will be formally signed when the prime minister visits Jakarta early in the New Year.

It is not well understood in this country just how significant Indonesia is for Australia’s regional security. Despite a promising start to the relationship when Indonesia achieved independence from the Dutch in 1945, ties between Jakarta and Canberra since then have often been tense, largely because of Australia’s ham-fisted Asian diplomacy, although the Indonesians share some of the blame too.

Is the latest joint security agreement a signal that Australia is trying to balance its diplomacy with the Indonesians, while tracking towards a more independent course for itself in regional politics? Maybe. Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently claimed that the government has assumed the role of a “regional architect,” nurturing multi-lateral alliances across the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. The rhetoric is hopeful, but more hard work needs to be done to give substance to this foreign policy rhetoric. Indonesia has lessons to teach Australia on this score.

As a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Indonesia carefully avoided making alliances with either of the two emergent superpowers, the Soviet Union and the USA. It maintained its independence in the context of post-War anti-colonial movements leading countries like India, Vietnam and Indonesia to successfully resist attempts by their former European colonisers to return to their former colonies, following the defeat of the........

© Pearls and Irritations