Press Conference, Indonesia

SUBJECTS: Australia-Indonesia bilateral meeting; Defence Cooperation Agreement; China’s presence in the region; Defence budget; Strategic circumstances; Indonesia travel advisory; General purpose frigate selection. 

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Well, it's wonderful to be here in Jakarta again. I've been here many times since becoming the Defence Minister and then Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, but this is my first visit to Indonesia since the election in Australia earlier in May. The relationship between Australia and Indonesia has never been in better shape. Last year, we signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement, which I signed with my then counterpart, now President Prabowo, and this morning I've had a wonderful meeting with my new counterpart, Minister Sjafrie.  This comes on the heels of the visit of the Australian Prime Minister, Prime Minister Albanese, our Foreign Minister and Minister for Home Affairs a few weeks ago. And what's clear is that there is a huge ambition on the part of our Prime Minister and on the part of the Indonesian President to see all the opportunities taken which come from the establishment of the Defence Cooperation Agreement. And really that was the subject of the conversation that I had with Minister Sjafrie this morning. We start from a really good base. Last year we had Exercise Keris Woomera here in Indonesia, that saw 2000 Australian personnel participating in that which is one of the largest bilateral exercises that we've ever done between Australia and Indonesia, and again, one of the largest exercises that we did last year outside of Australia. What the Defence Cooperation Agreement does is provide much greater seamless access for both of our defence forces to operate from each other's facilities and so we really want to take the opportunity of that. We are encouraging the TNI, on that basis, to unilaterally take advantage of Australia's training facilities. The first iteration of that will occur with the TNI conducting training at the Mount Bundey training facility in the Northern Territory. That will occur in October of this year. We also want to do more in terms of defence medicine cooperation, particularly in respect of combating malaria, and we're committing $3.5 million dollars to help the TNI and its efforts to deal with its exposure to malaria, and this year, we will see a clinical trial occur amongst the TNI in respect of anti-malarial drugs. We also talked about doing more in relation to maritime domain awareness, which will see us share much more information with the TNI, which greatly enhances the information and the awareness of the TNI in respect of the waters that we share, but also in relation to Indonesia's own territorial waters. And that, in turn, significantly empowers Indonesia to protect its maritime resources, which includes its fisheries. So there's a very expansive agenda that we look forward to implementing. I invited Minister Sjafrie to Australia. He's no stranger to our country. Indeed, Minister Sjafrie first went to Canberra before I did back in 1974 when he was one of the first intakes of Indonesian cadets to the Royal Military College at Duntroon. He did that with President Prabowo. I had the great joy of accompanying President Prabowo a couple of years ago to Duntroon and he visited a lunchtime mess gathering at Duntroon. We hope to be able to do the same with Minister Sjafrie, so he can go back to his old stomping ground. He actually said that he would be happy to stay in the barracks at Duntroon. We felt we could do better than that for him this time. But we're really looking forward to be able to being able to host Minister Sjafrie in Australia. And you know, this gives expression to the really optimistic and ambitious bilateral agenda that we have to increase the occasions on which Indonesian and Australian serving men and women operate and exercise together. 

JOURNALIST: Yes, I have my question, if you don't mind. For you, how important of a factor is China's increasing assertiveness in the region and in Australia having stronger defence ties with Indonesia. I want to know what they think about that. 

MARLES: Just ask the question again? 

JOURNALIST: How important of a factor is China's increasing assertiveness in the region?

MARLES: Look fundamentally, our relationship with Indonesia is based on its own terms. You just need to look at the map to understand how strategically important Indonesia is to Australia, but how strategically important Australia can be to Indonesia. We really can help provide Indonesia with strategic depth. And obviously, Indonesia very much sits across the north of Australia, and in that sense, its geography is profoundly important. Irrespective of what's going on in the rest of the world that alone means that it's profoundly important for us to have the best relationship that we can. And really, that's actually what's driving the increase in the activity between Australia and Indonesia, that's why we're seeking to deepen our relationship with Indonesia. I mean, we've made no secret of the fact that we have a security anxiety in relation to China that's principally driven by the very significant conventional military build-up that China is engaging in, and, for that matter, a nuclear build up that China is engaging in. We've made that clear to China itself. It does shape how we think about the strategic landscape that we face, but really the relationship that we are building with Indonesia very much stands on its own terms.

JOURNALIST: We would like to know your comment about the US asking Australia to increase defence budget. We know that Prime Minister already made a comment. He seems very straight about it, but also another ABC report saying that you are open about that considerations. So what's going on next for Australia and for the upcoming G7 Summit, to where Prime Minister will met?

MARLES: Thank you. Well, look clearly Australia will determine its own defence spending based on our own national interest. We understand the American view, and I've said that, but it's also I mean, America understands that we will determine our defence spending based on our own strategic interest, and we've made that very clear. In fact, we've increased our defence spending considerably already. We have, over the last couple of years, engaged in the biggest increase in peacetime spending for defence in our history, and that has significantly begun the process of enhancing the capability of the Australian Defence Force, and that spending is over the next four years, over the next 10. But it's, in fact, right now, what we've seen in terms of the spending from defence in respect of procurement in the financial year 23-24 it was the largest amount that defence has ever spent, and we will spend more again in this financial year, 24-25. So that that spending is happening across the board, we will continue to look at the resources that we need, the capabilities that we need, and we will resource that appropriately, which is what I've said, and what the Prime Minister has also said, and we will do that in a manner which meets the strategic moment.

JOURNALIST: The CDF spoke yesterday about Australia needing to prepare for potentially launching combat operation on its own soil. Do you think Australians are fully aware of the strategic risks the country is facing right now?

MARLES: I think that there's lots of levels at which you can answer that question. I mean, fundamentally, I do actually. I mean, there is, at the academic level, a lot of discussion, as has been happening over the last few days in Australia, around the strategic circumstances that we face and what we need to do to meet them. But I would also say that at the level of main street, when you're talking to people across Australia, as we obviously were doing during the election, there is a broad sense that we live in a much more complex world, that that world is uncertain, and that we need a government which is focused on national security. Now, you know the people won't be talking about this in the detail on main street that they will a conference at ASPI, but I think there is actually a sense that the world is uncertain and we need to be focusing on our national security, which is, of course, what the Albanese Government has been doing since we've come to power, and that's why we have engaged in the increase in defence spending that I described.

JOURNALIST: With Australia, issuing a travel warning for Indonesia including Bali today. How do you plan to maintain credibility and trust in our defence relationship, especially when such advisories maybe seen as undermining (inaudible) confidence? 

MARLES: Well, I don't want to, I don't think we should overstate what we've done in terms of the travel advisory. It is a routine update. It's a cautionary note about water vessels? I mean, Australians go to Bali in great number. Australians will continue to go to Bali in great number, and we very much encourage and support that. But in the last 24 hours, I think that we've actually had an incident where a vessel has capsized in and around Bali. There were Australians caught up in that, but thankfully, no one has been injured. And I'm advised that everyone is okay, but it is a cautionary note that people should take care, and that's all we've done with the travel advisory, but Bali remains a destination of choice for Australians. It's a really important part of the bilateral relationship, and it's one that we greatly encourage. 

JOURNALIST: Can you provide any timeline for the ratification of the defence pact? 

MARLES: Yeah, good question, and look, we will be as fast as we can, is the answer to that question. But the ratification will proceed quickly. I think obviously we have had less sittings of Parliament by virtue of having had an election. And we have our own processes to go through to do this, as there are processes here in Indonesia, but we're really confident that the ratification of the Defence Cooperation Agreement in both of our systems will happen in in short order. And that's as we would hope and want. What I think is also important, though, is that even before the ratification, it is giving expression to a much greater ambition between our two systems to work closer together in terms of defence and that is fundamentally important of itself, and that's very much evidenced in the meeting that I had with Minister Sjafrie today.

JOURNALIST: This is related with Japan and the updates related to Australia and Japan considering to build together a frigate patrol ship. We would like to know how the updates on this. 

MARLES: Well, more broadly, in terms of our defence relationship with Japan, we are doing increasingly more. And I met with my counterpart Ken Nakatani, the Minister for Defense in Japan, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore over the course of the weekend, and we're really excited about how we can be doing more together. I mean, our defence relationship with Japan is really at a high point in terms of our history, specifically in relation to the tender for the general purpose frigate, Japan, or Mitsubishi Heavy Industries I should say, is down to one of two remaining tenders in in that process, and they've been very much supported by the Government of Japan, and we appreciate that. We will go through the process of assessing those bids. Both are very impressive. We will intend to make a decision in relation to that this year, that what's important here with the general purpose frigate is that we acquire this in a way which we will see it in service as quickly as possible. We made that very clear from the outset, and we understand that at our end. That means that we need to be moving forward with appropriate speed in terms of the decision making process to enable this to occur, and that's why we will make a decision on this later this year.

JOURNALIST: Will Japan face any competition from, let's say the European community? 

MARLES: Yes. So we're down to two bids. The other is TKMS, which is based out of Germany. So they're the two bids that are left that we're now considering, and we'll make a choice between those two later in the year. I mean now the question is, they're both very impressive bids and we now need to go through this process in in the appropriate way, but what I think, what we have wanted to message to both tenderers is that we intend to make this decision as quickly as we can, which means before the end of this year, and that is in accordance with the timeframe that we set when we initially announced this as part of the release of the government's response to the Surface Fleet Review in early 2024, and so we need to keep on track. Perhaps just if we're closing up, take the opportunity to just say that this is the last leg in what's been a relatively extensive trip for me, which began with the Shangri-La dialogue on the weekend. It is the premier defence gathering within our region, and again, it was just a fantastic opportunity to renew relationships with so many of our key partners in the region and indeed beyond, including in Europe, and it was an opportunity, particularly for me, to renew my meetings with Secretary Hegseth building on the first meeting that I had with him back in February of this year. Here today in Indonesia, we have, as I've described, a huge agenda in terms of our defence relationship with Indonesia. What was actually really good about today is having spoken with Minister Sjafrie many times on the phone, it's actually the first time that we've met in person. So that was really nice to be able to do that. But in between time, I've been in the North East Indian Ocean. Beyond India that's not a place that I visited during the course of the first term of our government. When the Defence Strategic Review was handed down, it identified the North East Indian Ocean as a priority area of interest for Australia. Half of our trade goes past countries like the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India itself. So it was a really important visit to visit Maldives, to visit Sri Lanka and of course, India. And I can say that our relationships with these countries is in really good stead. We were welcomed warmly in the Maldives and Sri Lanka, and of course, as always, we were welcomed very warmly in India. So it's been a really successful visit. I'm really pleased that we've been able in this visit to place an emphasis on the North East Indian Ocean, and it's great to finish it here in Indonesia, which is a profoundly important partner for Australia. Thank you.

ENDS