The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has landed in Jakarta, kicking off a 10-day overseas visit which will take in Germany, Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia.
The formalities in Jakarta on Thursday are expected to include a reception at the presidential palace, a one-on-one meeting and media conference – and a public walk.
The invitation to walk with the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, in downtown Jakarta is a significant diplomatic overture. Turnbull is the first foreign leader to be extended that invitation.
Turnbull’s visit is an effort to reset one of Australia’s most important foreign policy relationships which was derailed by a number of events during the Abbott prime ministership, including running disagreements over asylum boat turnbacks, revelations that Australia had spied on, or attempted to spy on, the president, Susilo Yudhoyono, his wife and nine members of their inner circle in 2009 and, later, the executions of Bail Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The diplomatic fracture over the executions of Chan and Sukumaran led to the ambassador being recalled and ministerial visits being suspended for four months.
Relations have thawed in recent months. Ministerial visits have resumed, and will pick up pace in coming months.
The trade minister, Andrew Robb, will follow up Turnbull’s visit next week by leading the largest Australian trade delegation to visit the country.
Robb will be accompanied by 400 business delegates and colleagues the health minister, Sussan Ley, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton and the tourism minister, Richard Colbeck.
Australia is keen to capitalise on a recent policy shift in Jakarta.
Widodo began his term in office implementing a raft of protectionist measures, but more recent signals point to a rethink on the initial nationalistic populism.
But while the Australia/Indonesian relationship has clearly taken a positive turn, differences over asylum boat turnbacks remain an issue.
Ahead of Thursday’s formalities in Jakarta, Hasan Kleib, the Indonesian foreign ministry’s director general for multilateral affairs, continued to object to Australia’s policy of boat turnbacks, urging Australia to “sit down and talk with other affected countries in order to brainstorm policies that would benefit all parties and address the root causes of the problem”.
“What we ask – given the effect of [Australia’s migrant] policies in the region – is that we all sit down to talk about sharing responsibilities,” Kleib said.
Turnbull leaves Jakarta overnight for Berlin. Berlin will be followed by the G20 summit in Turkey, the Apec summit in Manila, and the East Asia summit in Kuala Lumpur.
