from ANTARA, The Indonesian National News Agency Jakarta, July 5 (ANTARA) - Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said this week's visit by Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson MP in Jakarta would demonstrate Australia's continuing commitment to the maintenance of its defense relationship with Indonesia
Nelson, who will visit Jakarta from Thursday to Friday, will discuss practical ways to strengthen further bilateral defense cooperation in meetings with his Indonesian counterpart, Juwono Sudarsono, and the commander of Indonesia's Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto, according to the Australian Embassy here on Thursday
The Australian minister will address the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) on the importance of the strategic relationship between Australia and Indonesia and meet members of Parliament's Commission I on security, defense and foreign affairs
He will also call on the chief executive of Indonesia's Maritime Security Coordination Board (Bakorkamla) to seek to build on the two countries' growing cooperation in maritime surveillance, as both countries are working together to combat regional problems such as illegal fishing and other transnational crimes
Farmer said Australia and Indonesia enjoyed a 'long-standing, close and extremely valuable' defense relationship that included extensive strategic dialogue between officials and members of their armed forces
The contemporary defence relationship also covered a wide range of practical cooperation in areas such as international peacekeeping, disaster relief, counter terrorism and regional maritime and aviation security
"Our two military forces now engage in regular joint exercises to improve their operational capacities, and their ability to work together in emergency situations," the ambassador said
"The outstanding cooperation between members of the Australian and Indonesian military in providing relief for victims of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Aceh is a great example of what we can achieve through regular exchanges, dialogue and joint training," he said
Joint bilateral exercises include ALBATROS AUSINDO in maritime surveillance, patrol boat exercise CASSOWARY, regional peacekeeping exercise PIRAP JABIRU, as well as disaster relief exercise RAJAWALI AUSINDO, involving C-130 transport aircraft
The ambassador said Nelson's visit was part of regular high-level exchanges between Australian and Indonesian security officials
Nelson and Minister Sudarsono last met at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June. The Australian minister's visit to Jakarta would be followed by annual defense officials talks in Canberra in late July and service-level talks between the leaders of the two countries' armies, navies and air forces later in the year
