Indonesia and Australia are delighted with the outlook of their
bilateral ties, the two countries’ top leaders made the remark following
their talks in Jakarta on October 1.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime
Minister Tony Abbott agreed that cooperation between the two countries
has witnessed achievements in economics, politics, security and social
welfare.
The two sides are also likely to especially support each other in agriculture and food security, said President Yudhoyono.
For his part, Prime Minister Abbott highly valued Indonesia’s
progress in democracy over the last six decades. He revealed a number of
Australian firms are keen on expanding operations in Indonesia .
Earlier during their talks, the two sides discussed bilateral,
regional and international issues of common concern, particularly peace,
security and stability in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific at large.
The talks are part of PM Abbott’s visit to
Indonesia that started on September 30. This is his first journey to a
foreign country since he took office in mid-September, signaling the
priority of Australia’s foreign policy on Southeast Asia.
Australia is currently Indonesia’s ninth largest investor while
the island country is 12th among Australia’s trade partners with
two-way trade hitting 13.6 billion USD in 2012.-VNA