Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The government is likely to reject an Australian push for its navy to be allowed to patrol Indonesian waters, in what could be a blow to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's attempts to stem the flow of refugees through Indonesia.
According to a military spokesman, Air Vice Marshall Sagom Tamboen, the offer, which would see joint patrols of Indonesian and Australian naval forces in each other's territorial waters, was made during talks on the establishment of a new memorandum of understanding regarding the implementation of the Lombok Treaty, a security agreement signed in 2006.
The agreement covers defense cooperation, law enforcement, counter terrorism, intelligence, maritime security and the prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Speaking to the Jakarta Globe on Thursday, Sagom said the joint patrol could be used as a way for the Australian government to prevent boats carrying asylum-seekers from entering its territorial waters.
He said the offer – which included Australia paying for the Indonesian Navy's expenses, including fuel costs during patrols – was not likely to pass because the Armed Forces only recognized a "coordinated patrol" scheme whereby naval vessels patrolled their own waters but coordinated with officers from other participating countries.
Under the coordinated patrol scheme, he said, Indonesia had signed cooperation agreements with neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. "We never conduct joint patrols," he said.
Sagom acknowledged that the military could understand Australia's potrying to prevent illegal migrants in Indonesian waters from entering Australia. "But in principle, we will keep refusing such a proposal because it does not fit with the scheme of our naval patrols," he said.
Besides, Sagom said, Indonesia would get complaints and requests for similar agreements from other neighbors if it accepted the Australian proposal. "So we commit that there will be no cooperation that could harm our country's interests in the end," he said.
The Australian Embassy said it was not ready to comment on the issue on Thursday night.
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Thursday published comments from an unnamed "official" source as saying that Rudd's attempts to forge a deal with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over the people smuggling issue had "strained relationships nurtured between Indonesian and Australian police for more than 20 years."
Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said both countries had agreed to cooperate on defense issues during talks last year to implement the Lombok Treaty. "For us, anything agreed to during the talks related to the cooperation must not harm our country's interests," he said.