PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has attacked Pauline Hanson again for her anti-Islamic views and warned they could play into the hands of extremists trying to radicalise young Muslims.

“I reject those sentiments entirely,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Muslims in Australia are utterly appalled by extremism, by violent extremism, by terrorism.”

His comments come after she gave an explosive interview to Nine’s A Current Affair program last night, where she said some Muslims wanted to live a “good life” as opposed to those who held extremist views, but it was hard to tell who they were.

“I want to actually believe I do that there are some you know who want a good life, who want to live a quiet life, but Tracy, you tell me, You line up a number of Muslims, who’s the good one? Who’s not?

“Where are the Muslims who want to speak up more? Why aren’t we hearing from them? How often do we ever hear from them Very, very rarely,” she said.

Mr Turnbull also praised Indonesian President Joko Widodo as one of Australia’s key efforts in the war against Islamic terrorism.

Mr Turnbull is in Jakarta where he will sign an agreement with Mr Widodo and other Indian ocean leaders to strengthen cooperation afainst terrorism.

“In that war against Islamist terrorism - extremism - our best allies are Muslim leaders like Joko Widodo,” Mr Turnbull said.

“The millions and billions of Muslims who are thoroughly committed to peace.”

CARR: DON’T LET TRUMP GO TO WAR

Former foreign minister Bob Carr has warned of the “disastrous” consequences for Australia if the Trump administration starts a trade war with China, claiming it could even tip the country into recession.

Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Mr Carr said it was imperative Australian diplomacy efforts were directed towards persuading the Trump administration out of “anything that reeks of a trade war with China”.

“This is the touchstone, this is the key issue: trade. And it’s one where Australia has a big stake. If Trump accepts the advice of extremists and mavericks he’s appointed to trade positions ... then there will be an attempt to block Chinese imports,” he said.

“That is going to lower the rate of Chinese economic growth, it’s going to affect all Asian economies and it’s most certainly going to affect the Australian economy.

“Fundamentally, those advisers would be asking their President to carve one percentage point or two percentage points off China’s expected economic growth, and that would kick Australia into recession, I think that’s a fairly reasonable conclusion.

“So Australian diplomacy at this point has got to be directed at one thing above all, and that is persuading our friends in America, people we can talk to in this crazy administration, that a trade war with China in any form ... is going to be disastrous for the world, really bad for this region, and bad for America itself.”

Mr Carr said every nation in southeast Asia was now dealing bilaterally with China over its maritime territorial disputes.

He called the growth of China a “force of nature”, claiming there was nothing Australia could do to stop it, even if it were in the country’s best interests.

“Clearly the consensus in Canberra as expressed two weeks ago by Angus Houston and confirmed only last night by Julie Bishop is that Australia will not be participating in American patrols within the 12 nautical mile radius ... Australia won’t be running its own patrols.

“I hope China gets the message that their diplomatic games they’ve made in the South China Sea in recent months would dissolve if they dredged Scarborough Shoal, which is so close to the Philippines”.

BISHOP HOSES DOWN JOINT SEA PATROLS

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has hosed down prospects of joint patrols with Indonesia in the South China Sea during her visit to Jakarta, while talking up trade and counter-terrorism co-operation in the region.

Ms Bishop joined her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) on Monday, with both countries hoping to create fresh avenues for boosting trade and combating violent extremism in the region.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo spruiked the waters as the “future” — with the region home to 2.7 billion people and a transport route for the majority of the world’s oil and half the world’s container ships.

Maintaining stability, security and peace in the region was paramount to achieving economic success, Indonesia has said.

To this end Ms Bishop said the 21 member states had signed the “first ever declaration” on combating terrorism in the region, bringing together countries as diverse as Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, Malaysia and Singapore.

Through a series of bilateral meetings with Indonesian ministers outside the summit on Monday afternoon, Ms Bishop was keen to stress the strong relationship between the two countries.

After one such meeting, Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said they were discussing Ms Bishop visiting Papua later this year.

This comes a month after Australia’s chief of army Angus Campbell travelled to Jakarta to smooth over relations after documents found at a Perth special forces base reportedly poked fun at Indonesia’s founding principles — Pancasila — in addition to an assignment on West Papuan independence.

Great to catch up with Indonesian businesswomen and entrepreneurs #Jakarta #IWD2017 pic.twitter.com/v8IRgrqOYF — Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) March 6, 2017

Mr Pandjaitan said they had discussed the “openness of Papua”, adding “we (would) love for some more countries to visit Papua to see what’s really going on.”

However, Ms Bishop has hosed down comments made by President Widodo about joint patrols in the South China Sea, saying it was her “understanding” he was talking about “co-ordinating our efforts in terms of freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight”.

“It was a question of joint exercises, not joint exercises as we would understand it,” she told reporters.

Australia and Indonesia already conduct sea patrols, with Australian Border Force and the Indonesian Coast Guard completing exercises in the Timor Sea earlier this year as part of the countries’ partnership on combating people smuggling and illegal fishing.

Mr Pandjaitan said the two countries were focusing on strengthening trade, tourism and other activities in the waters.

Ms Bishop is set to leave Jakarta on Monday night, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull due to arrive early on Tuesday to meet other heads of state at the IORA summit.