As Widodo nears his tenure’s end, will an Australia visit burnish his reputation?

After a brief working visit to Australia, Indonesian President Joko Widodo returns to Jakarta with a substantial farewell gift: easier visa rules for Indonesian business travellers. 

Indonesia has long chafed at visa inequality. Australians travelling to Indonesia enjoy $50 visas on arrival, but Indonesians coming to Australia usually have to fork out three to four times as much for a visa and may have to submit to a medical examination beforehand.

Dozens of other nations allow Indonesians to visit without visas, or offer them on arrival. Australia’s prickly requirements have been an irritant for our Pacific neighbour, sometimes seen by the Muslim-majority giant to the north as a signal of Australia’s suspicion and distrust. 

Yesterday Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Australia’s stringent visa rules would be loosened, a sign of strengthening relations between the two nations. “Our countries continue to choose to draw closer together as economic partners, as security partners, and as partners in the global transition to net zero,” Albanese said after a leaders’ meeting at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.

One concrete example of this “drawing together” is that Indonesians will soon be eligible for extended Australian business visas valid for three to five years and 10-year Australian frequent traveller visas. 

Winding up a visit aimed at nourishing economic cooperation and trade ties, this partial visa win will burnish Widodo’s legacy in Indonesia. Nearing the constitutionally mandated end of his 10-year tenure, the president — widely known as Jokowi — remains hugely popular in Indonesia, and has repeatedly pushed for Australia to relax visa rules to boost cooperation and understanding.

In the interests of this increased understanding, it was announced during his visit that three Australian universities — Western Sydney University, Deakin University and Central Queensland University — will establish campuses in Indonesia, following in the footsteps of Monash University. 

Widodo is also keen to jumpstart Indonesia into the fast-expanding world of green technology. In Sydney he met a range of Australian business leaders and called for cooperation in developing and manufacturing low-emissions technology. 

Indonesia and Australia have substantial reserves of electric vehicle (EV) components, and Australia is the world’s largest supplier of lithium, an essential component of EV batteries. Yet both nations lag in the race to grab EV market share. Indonesia hopes to work with Australia to boost its EV production and carve a slice of the increasingly lucrative EV market.

“Indonesia and Australia must build a more substantive and strategic economic cooperation through the joint production of EV batteries,” Widodo said.

Work is also underway to strengthen cooperative defence ties, now overshadowed by AUKUS, the trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK and the US. Albanese said Australia understands that the security, stability and economic success of Indonesia is essential to keep the Indo-Pacific region on a trajectory of peaceful growth and increasing cooperation. 

“As Australians feel the pressure from global economic challenges, it’s important that we’re investing in trading relationships to grow our economy, support good jobs and strengthen our supply chains,” Albanese said. “And of course there are few more important trading partners to us than Indonesia.”

In a joint communique, Albanese and Widodo “strongly deplored” Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and noted the “worsening crisis” in Myanmar, calling on the military junta to cease violence and allow unimpeded humanitarian assistance.

Indonesia will elect a new president early next year, and many hope Widodo’s successor will also look for peace and stability and not veer too far from the relations he has forged with Australia and in the region.