Abstract
This chapter notes how the Australia’s relationship with the newly independent Republic of Indonesia got off to a flying start after 1947. Trade union actions in Australian ports helped to impede Dutch attempts to re-impose the pre-War colonialism that the Netherlands had enjoyed across the vast Indonesian archipelago. Australia advocated for international recognition for the new state in the United Nations and extended a friendly hand to its new neighbour. However with the on-set of the Cold War, relations with Jakarta began to deteriorate. President Sukarno’s policy of confrontation with the newly emerging Malaysia saw Australia siding militarily with its Malaysian ally. While acknowledging privately the rapacity of the Suharto era in Indonesia, Canberra sought to get along with Jakarta. This policy became problematic with the East Timor crisis and later with the executions in Indonesia of Australian citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
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Notes
- 1.
The population of East Timor in the 1970s was about 700,000 –i.e., possibly almost a third of the population was eliminated during the Indonesian occupation.
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Patience, A. (2018). To Appease or Offend? Australia’s Indonesia Dilemma. In: Australian Foreign Policy in Asia . Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69347-7_7
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