Cath Hart – A foreign policy expert has warned the Government that relations with Indonesia would be damaged if Australia ratified the Lombok Treaty without clarifying Jakarta's expectations.

Hugh White, from the Australian National University, said the treaty could raise expectations in Jakarta that the Government would take action against Australians who supported Papuan separatism.

The treaty, which is yet to be ratified, includes a clause that says Australia and Indonesia will not support activities that threaten the stability, sovereignty or territorial integrity of either party. In a clear reference to the activities of Papuan independence campaigners in Australia, article 2.3 commits the parties to not supporting activities that encourage "separatism in the territory of the other party".

Professor White said that could mean Australia must prohibit statements in support of Papua. "Taking on commitments to regulate the views of Australian citizens and others in Australia seems to me to go well beyond Australia's laws and Australia's political culture," he said. "If it wasn't for article 2.3, I would regard this as an acceptable if somewhat anodyne piece of diplomacy."

The former director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said the treaty was "bound to disappoint" and would be "bad for the bilateral relationship" because article 2.3 created obligations that neither party could meet.

The treaty, which Australia and Indonesia announced in November, marked an improvement in relations following the diplomatic stoush that erupted after Australia gave protection to 43 Papuans.

A report from the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, to be launched today, warns that the treaty would make Australia a "de facto military ally with Indonesia in its undeclared war" against Papua.

"This treaty will strengthen the TNI (Indonesia's armed forces) and entrench the culture of impunity that has brought misery to so many people," the report says. "This treaty will give Indonesian generals the right to determine what Australians can do and say."