JAKARTA - Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra, Australia, announced the completion of the new defense agreement (DCA) negotiations between RI-Australia.

Defense Minister Prabowo during a press conference after a meeting at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, said the two countries had made excellent progress in the negotiations.

"We have straightened out a number of details related to legal matters, which in my opinion, the results are good," said Defense Minister Prabowo as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, August 20.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared the new defense agreement a historic agreement.

"This historic agreement will strengthen our defense cooperation through dialogue, strong interoperability, and increased practices in the field. This will be a vital reference for two countries and stability in the region," said PM Albanese.

He said Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles in the next few days would immediately fly to Jakarta to sign the defense agreement with Defense Minister Prabowo.

Then, Australian Defense Minister, who also serves as Deputy PM Richard Marles explained that the completion of the new defense agreement negotiations paved the way for the two countries to hold more joint military exercises.

"This agreement will increase interoperability between the armed forces of the two countries," said Marles.

The new defense agreement will be the most important cooperation document ever made by Indonesia and Australia.

"On the map, we are close neighbors, we share our fate. However, from now on, the fate is determined by a strategic and strong mutual trust," said Marles.

He explained that generally defense agreement negotiations take quite a long time, but Indonesia and Australia only need less than two years to complete the negotiations.

In the press conference, which was not accompanied by a question and answer session, Defense Minister Prabowo also emphasized other areas of cooperation that need to be expanded, including the food, agriculture, and eradication sectors of drug smuggling.

"In my opinion, we discussed important issues and this will benefit the future of the two countries," said Prabowo.


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