Erwida Maulia and Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Gillard vowed to strengthen economic, political and security ties, and agreed to work together in handling regional and global issues, including climate change, on the international stage.
Speaking after a one-and-a-half-hour meeting with Gillard at the State Palace, Yudhoyono said both countries could discuss further the establishment of an asylum seeker center with other countries in the region, including Timor Leste, in a meeting he suggested be held early next year to evaluate the progress of the region's partnership in dealing with issues like people smuggling and trafficking.
"We have the Bali Process as a framework to deal with those issues in this region. I hope we can discuss there the idea about the regional processing center," Yudhoyono told a joint press conference after the meeting.
"Indonesia is open to that [idea] but we have to discuss it in-depth to ensure once again that this is the solution for our regional problem," he added.
Malaysia has also said it would need to review the center proposal when Gillard visited the country over the weekend.
Gillard announced in her first policy speech as prime minister in July a plan to create a regional refugee processing center in Timor Leste to deter thousands of asylum seekers.
The subject became an important issue during Australia's recent elections. Gillard said Australia agreed to further discuss the idea through the Bali Process, adding that the regional protection framework and the processing center would "undercut the business model of people smugglers and take out of the hands of the people smugglers the product that they sell".
The first Australian female prime minister, however, did not raise the issue of the alleged torture by Indonesian authorities of indigenous Papuans, a subject that received international concern following a video posted online last month by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission showing Indonesian Military members torturing Papuans.
"President Yudhoyono has made it clear the perpetrators will all be brought to justice. I respect that," she said.
During the meeting, Gillard also raised the issue of the clemency plea filed by convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby with Yudhoyono, saying her government supported the plea. Corby was sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling 4 kilograms of cannabis into Bali in 2004.
Gillard said Australia would also support members of the Bali Nine heroine smuggling ring, three of whom are on death row, if any of them filed for clemency. In response, Yudhoyono said that although Indonesia's regulations gave him the right to grant clemency to local and foreign citizens, it required, "proper consideration, especially when concerning serious crimes".
He placed more emphasis on ongoing negotiations for a prisoner transfer agreement, which could see Corby brought back to Australia. "This is what we need to develop – the balancing of the principle of 'justice must be upheld' and the consideration of the humanitarian aspects," he said.