Howard forges amicable pact

CANBERRA - Indonesia and Australia yesterday moved to dump the baggage of half a century of fractious relations with a new accord to boost cooperation in security, trade and development.

In a groundbreaking visit to Canberra by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - only the third visit by an Indonesian leader since the brief honeymoon years of the Whitlam Labor Government - the two countries agreed on a new vision for the future.

A framework agreement signed by Yudhoyono and Prime Minister John Howard embraced two of the most sensitive thorns in a frequently fraught relationship - defence and trade.

Howard was careful to reassure Indonesia that it would not be the target of pre-emptive strikes against terrorists or secessionists.

"I made it very clear to the President that Australia fully respects the territorial integrity of the Indonesian republic," Howard said.

Importantly for New Zealand as well as Australia, Yudhoyono said Jakarta would push for the inclusion of the two countries in this year's East Asian summit in Malaysia, long a policy grail for Canberra and Wellington.

Stability in the region would also gain from greater security cooperation between Australia, the strongest regional military power, and Indonesia, its most populous nation.

"A successful moderate Islamic Indonesia led by a man of compassion and a man of vision such as President Yudhoyono is about the most powerful weapon that we can have against zealotry and extremism in our part of the world," Howard said.

Yudhoyono described the agreement as a landmark showing how far relations between the two countries had evolved.

"I sincerely hope that my visit here will affirm the importance of Australia to Indonesia and will help usher in a new era of bilateral relations between Indonesia and Australia, and all the promise that comes with it," he said.

The meeting - the fifth between the two leaders since Yudhoyono was elected last October - is a major effort to finally shrug off the tensions that have plagued relations since Australia initially supported Indonesian independence in 1949.

Early friendship rapidly vanished during the rule of dictator President Sukarno and a period of confrontation that saw conflict in Borneo.

Efforts to forge a new relationship by the Hawke-Keating Labor Government that led to a defence treaty in 1995 were shattered by the 1999 Australian-led intervention in East Timor.

But Canberra has capitalised on the swing to democracy that saw Yudhoyono elected last year, and has built on the cooperation against terrorism that followed the Bali bombings.

"Of all the great democratic transformations of recent times none has been more impressive than that of Indonesia," Howard said yesterday.

The relationship has also been warmed by Australia's response to the Boxing Day tsunami and the more recent earthquake, overlaid by sorrow at the deaths of nine Australians in a helicopter crash on the island of Nias on Saturday.

"Every Australian in this room and in the living rooms across Australia who saw our hardships, felt our pain and acted upon it has every reason to be proud of what you and your country have done for the tsunami victims," Yudhoyono said.

"It is humanity and solidarity at its best ... Our tsunami experience unveiled one important point - that relations between Indonesia and Australia are getting stronger, closer and better."