Hitting a High Point: The Australia-Indonesia 2+2 |
Oceania | Security | Oceania
Hitting a High Point: The Australia-Indonesia 2 2
The significance of the 2 2 is the growing web of cooperation between Canberra and Jakarta.
Last week, Australia and Indonesia held their tenth 2 2 defense and foreign ministers meeting in Melbourne. The two countries signed the landmark Jakarta Treaty on Common Security in 2024, and although the Indonesian parliament has yet to ratify the treaty, the 2 2 meeting proceeded with the assumption that this is simply the pace of Indonesia’s legislative processes, and that discussions can turn to how best to operationalize their cooperation.
The headline claim is that the relationship between the two countries is now “at a high point.” The Albanese government has made the relationship with Indonesia one of the central pillars of Australia’s foreign policy, understanding how vital friendly, cooperative, relations with its giant near neighbor is to the country’s security. Indonesia, for its part, has recognized it has a capable partner in Canberra that can help advance its own security interests, while maintaining its strategic autonomy.
Although the two countries are seeking to broaden their relationship, at present, defense and security cooperation remain the core elements and these areas were naturally a major focus of the discussions last week.
Given the nature of their geographies, this has developed into a focus on maritime security. At the 2 2 meeting it was announced that Australia will provide aerial drones and training to Indonesia’s Coast Guard. Given that illegal fishing is a central concern throughout Indonesia’s vast waters, and that Chinese often use maritime militia disguised as fishing vessels, greater maritime domain awareness is considered essential for Jakarta.
Alongside this, Australia and Indonesia agreed to increase cooperation on cybercrime, critical infrastructure, and artificial intelligence, building on their existing memorandum of understanding on enhanced cybersecurity and critical technology cooperation. This includes incorporating a defensive cybersecurity component into their bilateral defense exercise, Keris Woomera. Here, cybersecurity is not treated as a separate technical issue, but as a central pillar of military preparedness and national defense.
There is a similar thinking around economic security as inseparable from traditional security. The ministers announced a number of initiatives designed to make their economies more resilient to external shocks and any disruption to supply chains. This included new cooperation to jointly analyze critical supply chain issues and new scholarship courses that will be focused on economic security and resilience – hoping to........