The security agreement, scheduled to be signed in January, commits the two countries to mutual consultation on security concerns.
Australia and Indonesia say they are close to signing a “watershed” defense treaty that will strengthen their already close cooperation on security issues.
The deal was approved on Wednesday by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who is on his first state visit to Australia, but the agreement between the two countries will not be officially signed until January.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
The new agreement commits Australia and Indonesia to “regularly consult at leadership and ministerial level on security issues”, the Australian leader said.
It would also encourage “mutually beneficial security activities and, should the security of one or both countries be threatened, consultation and consideration of what steps can be taken individually or jointly to address those threats,” Albanese said.
“This treaty is a recognition by both countries that the best way to ensure peace and stability is to act together,” it added.
“This signals a new era in the Australia-Indonesia relationship,” he said, adding that the agreement commits the two countries to “cooperate closely in the field of defense and security.”
“Good neighbors will help each other in times of trouble,” Prabowo said.
In Indonesian culture, “there is a saying that when we face an emergency, it is our neighbors who will help us,” he added.
Today, I stood with my friend Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at HMAS Canberra to make a historic announcement.
The Australian and Indonesian governments have virtually completed negotiations on a new bilateral treaty on common security.
Australia… pic.twitter.com/bI53L7tj8q
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) November 12, 2025
According to Australian broadcaster ABC News, the terms of the agreement have not been made public, but Albanese said it was based on the 1995 security agreement signed by then-Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating and Indonesian President Suharto.
The agreement was later canceled by Indonesia over Australia’s involvement in a UN peacekeeping mission to East Timor, a former Portuguese colony brutally occupied by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999.
Since Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002, relations between Jakarta and Canberra have improved and they have signed two important security agreements: the 2006 Treaty of Lombok and the 2024 Defense Cooperation Agreement.
Mr Albanese said the new treaty builds on previous agreements and commits Australia and Indonesia to consultations where either or both countries believe their security is at risk and consider whether to address such threats “individually” or jointly.
Australia and Indonesia share long-standing concerns about the rise of China, which is seen as both an important economic partner and a strategic competitor with a growing military presence in the South China Sea and the Pacific region.
Former Australian Prime Minister Keating told ABC News last year that even 30 years ago he and Suharto were concerned about the Chinese government.
“My arrangement with Mr. Suharto was essentially a mutual defense pact because, given the geography, a serious threat to one would necessarily affect, or would have affected, the other,” he said, according to ABC News.
“Mr. Suharto was quite concerned about the future rise of China, and so was I. But even 30 years ago, he was concerned about Indonesia’s inability to defend its vast archipelago with a competent military,” he added.
