Indonesia calls for end to Australia's boat turn-back policy, says it led to Navy incursions

Updated

The Indonesian ministry in charge of security matters says Australia's policy of turning back asylum seeker boats has led to territorial breaches and needs to be stopped.

A review of operations by Australian Navy and Customs has found vessels inadvertently entered Indonesian waters six times while enforcing Operation Sovereign Borders.

The incursions came after the commanders incorrectly calculated the location of the maritime border.

The Government has apologised to Indonesia for the breaches, which happened in December and January.

But Agus Barnas, the spokesman for the Co-ordinating Ministry for Politics, Law and Security, says he has not seen the report.

But he says Australia's turn-back policy for dealing with asylum seekers has led to the violations and should be stopped immediately.

He says as long as the policy continues, there will be problems.

The Indonesian Navy says it backs those statements.

Earlier on Thursday, Defence Force Chief David Hurley said the incursions had led to a "go slow" in the military relationship between the two countries.

He says while Indonesia's military understands and accepts Australia's explanation, the breaches have had an impact on the relationship.

"I think we're just in a bit of a go-slow point at the moment," he said.

"We still talk to each other, we still have some levels of activity that are going on and I don't think we've reduced activities to such a point that they're not recoverable.

"And, in fact, I think both sides just want to get on [with] business as usual."

The incursions are the latest challenge in the key relationship, which suffered a blow in November when it was revealed Australian spies had collected data on the phone calls made by Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and senior officials in 2009.

Mr Yudhoyono suspended official military and intelligence cooperation with Australia and set conditions for its resumption, including the development of a code of conduct.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop says Australia has prepared a draft code and is waiting for Indonesia to respond.

Topics: foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, federal-government, navy, defence-forces, refugees, australia, asia, indonesia

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