Chief of the Australian Defense Force General Peter Cosgrove says his country is keen to intensify future military relations with Indonesia.
The two countries could hopefully forget their bitter experience in East Timor in an effort to build more harmonious relations in the future, he told Indonesia's state news agency Antara at a commemoration of Indonesia's independence anniversary held by the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra on Wednesday.
To date, said Cosgrove, military ties between the two nations have been conducted with routine cooperation. "We hope the ties would focus more on efforts to handle the many security challenges," he was quoted as saying by Antara.
He said military cooperation between Indonesia, Australia and East Timor is vital to maintaining stability in the region.
Asked about a possible visit to Indonesia, Cosgrove diplomatically replied that would like to come to Indonesia although no visit has been scheduled yet.
The Indonesian Embassy's acting charge de affaires, Imron Cotan, said Cosgrove's presence at the Independence Day commemoration showed goodwill on the part of the Australian military to maintain good relations with Indonesia.
Other Australian officials who attended the celebration were Attorney General Daryl Williams and shadow foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd.
Relations between Jakarta and Canberra hit an all-time low in September 1999 when Australia led a UN-sanctioned multinational peacekeeping force to East Timor to put a stop acts of murder and destruction by the Indonesian military's militia proxies.
Australia had been the only Western nation that recognized Indonesia's 1976 annexation of East Timor, but following the fall of Suharto in 1998, Canberra cautiously set the ball rolling for the territory's independence.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard in December 1998 sent a letter to then president B.J. Habibie, recommending a period of special autonomy for East Timor followed by a referendum.
Habibie jumped the gun and pledged to hold a referendum within a year, much to the anger of the Indonesian military, which began preparing pro-Jakarta militia groups to fight for the territory's integration.
The international force that ended the carnage was led by Cosgrove, who was appointed chief of the Australian military in May 2002.
In the wake of the Septenmber 11 attacks on the US, representatives of Australia and Indonesia signed an agreement on counter-terrorism protocol.
Under these agreement, Australia will provide specialist training and education programs if requested, but the politically sensitive issue of direct military cooperation was not touched on.
Analysts say future military cooperation will largely depend on the results of the trials of Indonesian officials implicated in the East Timor. So far Indonesia has acquitted six defendants accused of responsibility for the mayhem.