Indonesia may review people-smuggling cooperation with Australia after spying allegations

Updated

Indonesia says its intelligence cooperation with Australia on people smuggling and terrorism could be reviewed in light of reports Australia has been spying on its largest neighbour.

Allegations that Australia used its Jakarta embassy as a base for political, diplomatic and economic intelligence gathering surfaced last week.

Indonesia's foreign minister Marty Natalegawa says Australia has refused to confirm or deny the allegations.

"Then we will have to assume that such activities are taking place and draw our own conclusion," he told reporters on Monday afternoon.

Key points Indonesia says Australia has refused to deny spying reports

Says it could review intelligence cooperation with Australia

Foreign minister wants guarantee that spying will stop

Comments come after Anonymous Indonesia hacked Australian businesses

He says, until now, the two countries have cooperated effectively on sharing intelligence.

"If Australia feels that there are ways of obtaining information other than the official one, then one wonders where we are at in terms of cooperation," he said.

Dr Natalegawa has ruled out expelling Australian diplomats from the country but he wants a guarantee that any spying will stop.

"I think they should be able to say henceforth they are not going to do it anymore. Enough is enough," he said.

He says he has taken a look at the many existing agreements Indonesia has with Australia, such as sharing intelligence to interrupt people-smuggling operations.

Dr Natalegawa indicated that should be reviewed.

I think they should be able to say henceforth they are not going to do it anymore. Enough is enough. Indonesia's foreign minister Marty Natalegawa

"To address issues such as people smuggling, for example, to disrupt people smuggling, to disrupt terrorist attacks, etc," he said.

"Now, this information flow have been rather effective, very important.

"We need to look at that."

Indonesia has reacted angrily to the spying claims, with the foreign minister last week saying it was "just not cricket" to engage in such activity.

Dr Natalegawa's latest comments came after a group, calling itself Anonymous Indonesia, hacked the websites of almost 200 Australian businesses.

They replaced homepages with threats to the Australian Government in reaction to reports of spying and intelligence gathering.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's foreign minister says he's deeply concerned by allegations Australia has been using its embassy in Kuala Lumpur for spying.

Over the weekend, Anifah Aman met Australian counterpart Julie Bishop in Perth to present her with a letter of protest over the matter.

"The Malaysian public are very angry about it and we also think that it is immoral to do so - you don't spy on close friends," he said.

"The explanation that has been given by the Honourable Julie Bishop ... is not really detailed and we are not fully satisfied with it."

Mr Anifah says that Malaysians are "simple" people who talk to each other when they want to cooperate on something.

"So if it was meant to be gathering intelligence for terrorists or trafficking in persons, why don't you talk to the authorities in that particular country instead of putting all the equipment in there?" he said.

He says Malaysia does not have any equipment for spying at the nation's missions in Canberra.

Topics: defence-and-national-security, security-intelligence, world-politics, foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, indonesia, australia

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