Malcolm Turnbull has warned, after meeting Indonesian President Joko Widodo, that relocating Australia’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “would be met with a very negative reaction in Indonesia” and that Australia should consider its interests in the region before doing so.
Mr Turnbull emerged from a 40-minute meeting with his “good friend” Jokowi, on the sidelines of the Oceans Conference in Bali yesterday, confident the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement — that many fear has been imperilled by the issue — would be signed as planned in coming weeks.
“I have no reason to believe it won’t. Of course, it then has to be ratified through the Indonesian parliamentary system in the normal way,” he said, highlighting the last and likely thorniest passage of the free-trade deal negotiated over eight long years.
Mr Turnbull confirmed he discussed the embassy issue with Jokowi and that the Indonesian President “expressed to me, as he has done to Prime Minister Morrison, the very serious concern held in Indonesia about the prospect of the Australian embassy in Israel being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Read the article by Amanda Hodge and Nivell Rayda in The Australian.