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27 Nov, 2013

Indonesia-Australia ties: More people-to-people, less G-to-G | Jakarta Post

By Risti Permani

Adelaide – As an Indonesian that is actively involved in various Australia-based programs — not only GoLive Indonesia, a project promoting discussions on various topics, the Indonesia Diaspora Network South Australia but also several agricultural research projects focusing on Indonesia and Indonesian communities — seeing any damage to the Indonesia-Australia relationship has always been a personal and disappointing experience for me.

The two countries have so many things to offer, if they can work cooperatively. They are neighbors and in many sectors they are complementary. Yet, predicting the future of the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Australia is as difficult as predicting the stock market. We can learn the long-run trends but uncertainty remains high.

In the midst of this uneasy situation, being an outsider to the policy-maker group many people including Indonesian students living in Australia ask themselves “what can, and what should, we do; what do we expect from both governments?” I asked myself the same questions recently.

Read the rest: RI-Australia ties: More people-to-people, less G-to-G | The Jakarta Post.