By Ha Er-rui | 2026-02-16

Australia and Indonesia have formalized a new security agreement aimed at deepening defense cooperation, increasing consultation on shared security concerns and strengthening ties between the two neighbors.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto signed the pact on February 6 in Jakarta, with both governments presenting the agreement as a step toward closer coordination on regional security, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Albanese described the deal as a "watershed moment" in Australian-Indonesian relations, saying it showed ties between the countries were stronger than ever.

Prabowo highlighted the agreement as a means to solidify the countries' ties and safeguard regional stability, the Indonesia Business Post reported.

"This reflects a firm commitment to the principle of good neighborliness and our independent and active foreign policy," he said at a joint news conference.

According to ABC, the final text released by the Australian government is largely identical to a 1995 security pact between the two countries. Indonesia tore up that earlier agreement after Australia led a peacekeeping force into East Timor.

As with the 1995 pact, the new agreement commits both sides to regular consultations on "matters affecting their common security" and to developing cooperation that benefits both countries. It also provides for "mutually beneficial" security cooperation, including joint defense initiatives, expanded military education and training exchanges, and closer coordination in exercises and planning.

Under the agreement, the two sides will consult if either faces adverse challenges to shared security interests and, where appropriate, consider responses taken individually or jointly.

The agreement reflected a response to a more volatile security environment, said Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

"It's a much more disrupted, much more challenging set of circumstances we face in our region and globally," she told ABC Radio National.

"This is the biggest step that Australia and Indonesia have taken together to strengthen our partnership in 30 years," said Wong.

The risk of 'placebo diplomacy'

Some analysts, however, questioned how much practical effect the agreement would have.

The pact could become typical of the region, "an agreement that reassures more than it constrains," Hangga Fathana, an assistant professor of international relations at Universitas Islam Indonesia in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, said in a commentary for the Lowy Institute's The Interpreter.

The pact will have real impact only if followed by clear, measurable actions, such as sustained senior-level exchanges, workable crisis response plans and consistent implementation, he said.

Without those, he said, "that is placebo diplomacy: the appearance of safety without the substance of obligation."

However, the arrangement could serve political purposes for both sides, he noted

"If Canberra's aim is to hedge against uncertainty and Jakarta's aim is to keep maximum autonomy, this treaty serves both -- politically," he wrote.

Indonesia's nonaligned path

Indonesia pursues a nonaligned foreign policy, unlike Australia or Japan. The country has stepped up cooperation with China and Russia in recent years, and Prabowo attended a BRICS summit in 2025 after Indonesia joined the economic bloc.

BRICS is named for early members Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa.

Since Prabowo cultivates relationships with China and Russia's leaders, Australia should not expect an embrace by its populous neighbor, said Greg Fealy, an honorary professor of Indonesian politics at Australian National University in Canberra.

"[W]e shouldn't have too high expectations about what practical defense benefits this might have for us," he told ABC. "It remains to be seen how far Indonesia would be prepared to go if there was a serious, common security threat in the region."

The pact does not signal a turnaround in Jakarta's foreign policy, Susannah Patton, director of the Lowy Institute's Southeast Asia Program, agreed.

"The idea that Australia and Indonesia agree on the regional security outlook and what they would do in response to some kind of crisis is just not accurate," she told ABC.

Rivalry with China on the horizon

However, the pact could take on greater significance as Indonesia's economic and military weight grows in Southeast Asia, where it is widely expected to play a larger role in shaping regional security dynamics, Sam Roggeveen, director of the security program at the Lowy Institute, told the South China Morning Post.

"Indonesia's interests and China's ambitions in Southeast Asia are going to clash more and more directly over time," Roggeveen said, adding Indonesia "increasingly faces a choice of either accommodating China or resisting those ambitions" as China's own maritime power grows.

Beyond security, Prabowo invited Australia to expand cooperation in agriculture and to invest in Indonesian processing of critical minerals, the Indonesian government said in a statement. The two sides discussed broader cooperation in education and workforce development.