Turnbull trip to reset ties with Jakarta

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Widodo's wife Iriana and Turnbull's wife Lucy walk at the garden of Merdeka Palace during their meeting in Jakarta. Photo / AP

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held talks in Indonesia yesterday aiming to reset ties as he starts his first overseas tour since wresting control of the Government.

Turnbull, 61, spoke to President Joko Widodo on enhancing trade ties and countering regional security and economic challenges. The discussions precede meetings with international peers at summits including the Group of 20 in Turkey and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the Philippines.

The new Prime Minister is on a 10-day, five-country tour of Indonesia, Germany, Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The visit to Jakarta was used by Australia as a means to repair the turbulent relationship, strained by a series of spats under Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Two months after seizing the leadership, Turnbull is aiming to replicate on the international stage his growing domestic popularity, which has pushed his Coalition Government to an election-winning lead in opinion polls.

"The change to Turnbull as leader is nice timing for the Indonesia-Australia relationship, as it will allow it to reset after it fell to a precarious position in recent years," said Greg Barton, of Melbourne's Deakin University.

"There's a feeling that the optimism within Australia, that the new leader is much more reasonable to deal with than Abbott, should also apply in our relationship with Indonesia."

Turnbull said he and Widodo had a mutual interest in growing economic co-operation.

The visit comes just a week ahead of more than 300 business chiefs and four cabinet ministers taking part in Australia's largest delegation to Indonesia. The trade visit will take to 10 the number of cabinet members who have visited Jakarta since the April executions of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. Ministerial visits were suspended for almost four months, and the ambassador withdrawn, after the drug smugglers' executions.

Abbott's vow to relationship with Jakarta derailed when media reports revealed Australia's intelligence services had tapped the phone of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

- Washington Post, Bloomberg