Indonesia and Australia: The risks of gestures

Greta Nabs-Keller, Griffith Asia Institute PhD student comments on the Lowy Institute’s Policy Brief Indonesia and Australia: Time for a step change.

“Although the release this week of the Lowy Institute Policy Brief Indonesia and Australia: Time for a step change, provides welcome input into means of enhancing Australia’s bilateral relationship with Indonesia, there are political risks and policy complexities around several of the recommendations.

It highlights the negative mutual public perceptions in both countries as a serious impediment to closer relations and contends perceptions of Indonesia present the Australian government with ‘one of its most pressing foreign policy problems’. Fifty-four per cent of Australians have minimal trust in Indonesia ‘to act responsibly in the world’, according to the 2009 Lowy Poll.”

The full article can be found at http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2010/03/12/Indonesia-and-Australia-the-risks-in-grand-gestures.aspx

Greta Nabbs-Keller is writing a PhD on the impact of democratisation on Indonesia’s foreign policy.