A trade deal with Indonesia is “ still on track” despite the possibility of Australia’s Israeli embassy moving to Jerusalem, trade minister Simon Birmingham says.
But Coalition MPs have continued to lash former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull for publicly raising concerns about the effect of the mooted Israeli move on the nation’s relationship with our Muslim-majority neighbour
Senator Birmingham said any decision on the Israeli embassy would be made in the “national interest” but said the trade deal with Indonesia would not be affected.
“I am told by trade negotiators that work is continuing in a very positive way to scrub the text, to finalise the terms that we settled largely in terms of negotiations a couple of months ago,” he told Sky News today.
“I am confident we are still on track to see this trade agreement signed by the end of this year … we take the word of the Indonesian trade minister who has publicly said it is on track.”
The fallout has continued from Mr Turnbull’s comments at the Our Ocean conference where he warned Scott Morrison should consult Indonesian President Joko Widodo before moving the embassy from Tel Aviv.
Read the article by Richard Ferguson in The Australian.