SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister John Howard has always been uneasy with the country’s Southeast Asian neighbours and his foreign policy views were more in tune with the United States and Britain. But things appear to be changing, now, and the premier, who has been in office since 1996, seems to have started his fourth term in office with a strong focus on Asia.

Lately, Howard has made it known quite emphatically that Australia would like to be included at a December inaugural East Asian summit in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, together with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and South Korea.

To improve Australia’s East Asian credentials, the Australian prime minister last week hosted two leaders from neighbouring countries. Ironically some time back, Howard raised the prospect of taking unilateral action against these countries for allegedly hosting armed extremists’ bases in the region.

First to arrive in the country was Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose three-day trip coincided with the arrival of nine bodies of Australian servicemen and women killed in a helicopter crash in the Indonesian island of Nias, while on an earthquake relief mission there.

In an airport ceremony with his Australian counterpart, the Indonesian leader awarded medals of honour to all nine dead Australians, in a gesture that would have been unthinkable a few years ago after Australian troops helped create an independent East Timor in 1999.

During his visit, designed mainly to drum up Australian investments in Indonesia, Yudhoyono charmed his Australian hosts — even going to the extent of promising to support Australia’s inclusion at the East Asian summit in December.

In a speech at Parliament House in Canberra, Yudhoyono acknowledged that the relationship between the two close neighbours had seen many ups and downs over the years. “Recently we have begun to relate to each other differently,” he observed.

Both countries also signed a “joint declaration on comprehensive partnership” that would ultimately lead to a new defence cooperation treaty to replace the one, which was signed by former Labour prime minister Paul Keating and then Indonesian president Suharto in 1995.

That was torn up by Indonesia after Australian forces landed in East Timor in 1999. The new treaty is expected to contain pledges to respect each other’s territorial integrity.

Howard was quick to emphasise this level of trust in the bilateral relationship when he pointed out that the joint declaration stated Indonesia had Australia’s support against any secessionist movements.

Indonesia in turn pledged to support Australia’s inclusion into the East Asian summit, with Yudhoyono stating that Jakarta could be Australia’s “bridge to East Asia”.

But both parties did not elaborate on a controversial deal reached in March between the governments to investigate any evidence of pro- independence activities by non-governmental organizations in Aceh and Papua funded by Australian aid.

Australian National University’s specialist on Papua Chris Ballard told the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ that the deal would now have a serious impact on the work of human rights activists working in both provinces.

Hot on the heels of Yudhoyono was Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi who arrived in Canberra a day after the Indonesian premier left.

Abdullah’s focus was more on business links rather than defence or political issues.

When he was asked by reporters about supporting Australia’s inclusion at the East Asia summit, he suggested that Canberra would have to first sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, a non-aggression pact conceived by Southeast Asian nations during the then Cold War, which has been signed by a number of non-ASEAN states including Japan, China, Korea, India and Russia in recent years. The Howard government has refused to sign it so far.

In an Australian television interview before his arrival, Abdullah said that though Howard may be changing his tune on Asia, his pre-emptive threats makes them “inclined to believe that Australia is not really centering on Asia, but more concerned on reflecting the views expressed by the United States”.

The two countries however agreed to start negotiating a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to be finalized by mid-2006.

In a farewell address in Sydney on Friday, Badawi said that Malaysia would “like to show by example that a Muslim country can be modern, democratic, tolerant and economically competitive” and “reforms in the Muslim world must be accompanied by visible and meaningful changes to the foreign policies of key Western countries”.

Though he did not name the countries, Australia is believed to be one of them, as he went on to elaborate that violent Muslim extremism would not be defeated by a “holier than thou contest”, but by addressing the root causes that promote anger and frustration.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.