Australia and Indonesia to sign security pact next week, PM says

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20061108110021&irec=0

November 08, 2006
CANBERRA (AP): A security pact to be signed between Australia and Indonesia next week showed that the two countries had moved on from diplomatic rifts over East Timor and Papuan asylum seekers, Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday.
The agreement to be signed by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda in Jakarta will replace a bilateral defense treaty torn up by the Indonesians in 1999 when Australia led international troops into East Timor to restore order after the former Indonesianprovince's bloody independence ballot.
The new pact, which will formally recognize Indonesia's sovereignty over its sprawling archipelago, also comes after Canberra outraged Jakarta earlier this year by accepting the refugee claims of 43 asylum seekers from the restive province of Papua.
Howard said he welcomed the pact which has been under negotiation for two years.
"I think it's a manifestation of the balance and maturity of the relationship," Howard told reporters.
"It does show that our relationship has moved on and absorbed some of the adversities surrounding it, arising out of East Timor and more recently out of the 43 asylum seekers," he added.
Indonesia temporarily recalled its ambassador from Australia after the Papuans, who were involved in the province's separatists movement, were accepted as refugees despite Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's personal assurances that they would not be harmed if they returned. (**)