Page 57 - Geopolítica del Mundo Actual. Una Visión Multidisciplinar

GEOPOLÍTICA DEL MUNDO ACTUAL. UNA VISIÓN MULTIDISCIPLINAR:
Cultura de Paz, Conflictos, Educación y Derechos Humanos
have been dominated by the interests of seeking security in the Pacific. Hence, it is very important for this country to always ensure security in the region, especially its sea lanes. This urges the country to be actively involved in activities to protect the area, especially those directly adjacent to Indonesia. The efforts to safeguard this security are not limited on the attacks from other countries and acts of terrorism, but also from influx of immigrants coming into the country. Therefore, the arrival of the IMAs inevitably raises concerns for the country, hence, the Australian government issues various policies to secure its interests; although, it often, violates the rights and interests of other countries.
In 2013, following Australia’s policy of refusing IMAs to enter its territorial waters, the issue of phone tapping carried out by the Australian government in 2009 to the President of Indonesia at that time, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, included the first lady and other government officials; arose and became the topic of news in the mass media of both countries. This report comes from a secret document leaked by Edward Snowden and first revealed by The Guardian. “Tapping’’ carried out by the Australian government under the administration of Kevin Rudd, back then, is certainly not acceptable to Indonesia. The act of tapping is certainly not justified in the ethics and norms of relations between countries. This is contrary to the concept of diplomatic relations and trust between the two countries. Moreover, this resulted that the relations between the two countries in tension again.
As a neighboring country, with its strategic position geographically, Australia cannot ignore the importance of Indonesia in its relations and foreign cooperation. Cooperation between Indonesia and Australia in the fields of trade, investment and education has begun since pre-independence of Indonesia in 1940. Today, Indonesia is a route for Australian business, moreover, Indonesia in position 12th of largest partner Australia in trading sector. As a country with biggets population in SouthEast Asia, Indonesia as a market and importer country for Australian agriculture and farming products.
Indonesia’s population is larger than Australia, and its middle class is larger than Australia’s entire population, besides a fairly good economic growth in the last decade. All these facts are favorable to Australia; this country become a potential market for many of Australian products.
In addition, Indonesia not only partner for Australia in economic cooperation, but also in education. Australia is one of the favorite destination countries for Indonesian students to continue their education to a higher level. In 2014, as many as 13,700 Indonesian students were enrolled in educational institutions in Australia. Not just relying on scholarships, many of Indonesian students finance their education in Australia independently. It means that, these students provide economic benefits for the income of the Australian community. In the relationship of government to government, based on information from the Ministry of Education of Republic of Indonesia, in the past 2015, the two countries agreed to strengthen relations through cooperation in education and culture.
In the tourism sector, Indonesia is one of the main destination countries for Australian tourists. Supported by adjacent locations, especially the island of Bali, this encourages the level of Australian community visits to Indonesia. Even based on information from the Statistics Indonesia, in January 2018, Australian tourists in Bali were the largest visitors, reaching 24.20% of the total number of visitors. This means that the Australian tourists have significance in revenue of Indonesia’s tourism sector.
All of the examples mentioned above are only a few of the cooperation between the two countries. There are still many more cooperation and assistance, such as The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), infrastructure cooperation projects, etc. Therefore, the expansion of bilateral partnerships between the two countries is important. Furthermore, Indonesia, which is located in a strategic geographical position and as the entrance to Australia, makes this country one of the key factors that cannot ignored by Australia in maintaining its security and defense.
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