Indonesia suspends military cooperation with Australia

JAKARTA/SYDNEY — Indonesia’s military suspended cooperation with Australia’s armed forces last week, Indonesian officials said on Wednesday, after what media described as insulting teaching materials were found at a base in Western Australia. But a spokesman for Indonesian President Joko Widodo said there had been no discussion of the matter with the president and that the issue had been exaggerated. “This was not a decision of the president,” spokesman Johan Budi said. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said merely that some activities had been “postponed.” Military cooperation between the two sides, which have important military ties ranging from counterterrorism cooperation to border protection, was suspended for “technical reasons,” a spokesman for the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) said. “All forms of cooperation have been suspended,” Major General Wuryanto said. He said a broad range of activities would be affected. “There are technical matters that need to be discussed,” Wuryanto said. Among these was the training material seen at an Australian military base, he said without elaborating. It was “highly likely” cooperation would resume once those issues were resolved, Wuryanto said. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne acknowledged suspension of some activities and said concerns were raised by an Indonesian military officer late last year about some teaching materials and remarks at an army language training facility in Australia. “As a result, some interaction between the two defense organizations has been postponed until the matter is resolved. Cooperation in other areas is continuing,” she said. A spokesman for Indonesia’s Defense Ministry said it had first heard about the matter from the media. A spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry did not answer calls or respond to a written request for comment. Widodo planned to visit Australia in November, with a focus on economic and maritime cooperation and efforts to counter militancy, but the trip was postponed amid unrest in Jakarta. Indonesia last suspended military ties with Australia in 2013 over revelations Australian spies tapped the mobile phone of then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. An Indonesian special forces trainer had seen training material that insulted Indonesia’s founding principles of “Pancasila,” which include belief in god, the unity of Indonesia, social justice and democracy, Indonesian newspaper Kompas said. Australia stopped joint training exercises with Indonesian Special Forces, known as Kopassus, after accusations of abuses by the unit in East Timor in 1999 in the lead-up to the former Indonesian territory’s independence three years later. — AFP