President hopes House to ratify Lombok Treaty soon

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Friday expressed hope that the House of Representatives (DPR) will ratify a defense cooperation accord between Indonesia and Australia soon.

"We have already submitted the defense cooperation accord or the Lombok Treaty to the DPR for ratification. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and the accord can be implemented fully," President Yudhoyono said in a joint press conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Nusa Dua, Bali.

The president said the accord signed in the eastern Indonesian island of Lombok on Nov 13 last year was a crucial cooperation agreement for the two nations because it covered cooperation in the fields of defense, law enforcement, counter-terrorism, maritime affairs, and natural disaster mitigation.

Under the accord, the two nations also had agreed to uphold bilateral principles, including mutual respect for each other`s sovereignty without interfering in internal affairs and mutual respect for each other`s national unity, territorial integrity and independence in the political field, he said.

"So, the aim of the Lombok Treaty is really to benefit both Indonesia and Australia," he said.

Meanwhile, Howard, when asked about Australia`s travel warning for its citizens to visit Indonesia, said his government was required to inform its citizens of security conditions in a country which was much visited by Australians.

"It`s the Australian government`s duty to issue such information. But we leave it to each of the individuals concerned to make their own decision about what to do," he said.

The fact that many Australians were still visiting Bali and the rest of Indonesia implied that they were not forbidden to make up their mind about traveling to Indonesia, he said.

President Yudhoyono further said that in his talks with the Australian premier earlier in the day, they discussed a wide range of issues related to bilateral cooperation and partnership which had been growing since the signing of a joint declaration on strategic partnership in 2005.

In addition to the Lombok Treaty and trade and investment relations, the two leaders also discussed programs for the handling of climate change to be brought up at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Sydney in September for discussion, Yudhoyono said.

The programs would also be discussed in a United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled for December 3-14 in Bali, he said.

The two-week long conference in Bali would bring together representatives of over 180 countries as well as observers from inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the media.(*)