Tony Abbott says he hopes Australia and Indonesia will within weeks sign the “code of conduct” that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has demanded before relations between the two countries can return to normal.

On Wednesday, Abbott and Yudhoyono will have their first face-to-face meeting since the relationship was plunged into a deep freeze following revelations that in 2007 Australia had targeted Yudhoyono, his wife and his close allies for spying, and since Australia began the controversial policy of turning back asylum seeker boats to Indonesia.

But Indonesian officials are cautioning that a full restoration of ties will have to wait until the foreign ministers can negotiate the code of conduct demanded by Yudhoyono after the spying revelations. Yudhoyono said the code would have to include "protocols'' and guarantees that the phones of Indonesian politicians would not be monitored in the future.

Teuku Faizasyah, the president’s spokesman for international relations, told the Jakarta Post that Indonesia would maintain its embargo on several bilateral agreements until both parties agreed to the code, which is still being drafted.

Asked about progress on the code during question time in parliament, Abbott said “these international agreement sometimes take a little while to negotiate … the Indonesians took some time to give us their draft, we are now working on their draft, but I am confident when the foreign minister and the defence minister sit down with their counterparts for the ‘two plus two’ dialogue in a few weeks’ time, that would be a very good time to finalise the code of conduct”.

He said he was “determined to do everything I can to improve the relationship”, particularly during the term of Yudhoyono, which ends in October, because the current president had been “a very good friend to Australia”.



Abbott was earlier forced to downplay the revelation that Yudhoyono had allowed Indonesian journalists to listen in on a private telephone conversation between the two leaders last month, saying the important thing was the cordial tone of the discussion.



According to the Jakarta Post, the meeting and dinner on the island of Batam will take place on the sidelines of a Qur’an recitation contest.

A meeting between the pair on Bali last month was cancelled, officially because Abbott was caught up with budget preparations but reportedly because it would have coincided with another boat turnback.

But, according to the ABC, the pair did have a phone conversation, during which Indonesian journalists were “accidentally” allowed to stay in the room. One posted a partial transcript of the discussion, in which Yudhoyono proposes a June meeting.

The transcript reads as follows:

Yudhoyono: Because that time will be the election for a new president. If we can meet before August, then we can complete everything. We can strengthen and step up our relationship even higher.

Abbott: I will prove that there is a new relationship between Indonesia and Australia as fast as possible.

Yudhoyono: I'd be glad to join, and we can meet before August ... like in June. We can prove that new relationship. I believe our relationship will get stronger and benefit each other.

Asked about the revelation, Abbott told the ABC’s AM program: “Well, it was a very good conversation, it really was … Look, I was having a very genial conversation with the president, and I could tell the president was very keen to have a warm conversation with me, and the important thing was the cordiality of the conversation.”

Asked about the meeting on Batam on Wednesday, Abbott said he was “looking forward to making sure the relationship is on a very strong footing” and would assure Yudhoyono that Australia would always treat Indonesia with respect and “will always cooperate when we can”.

Abbott said the fact that few boats were now leaving Indonesia’s shores meant one source of friction was “drying up”.

In a further sign relations between the countries were beginning to return to normal after the revelations – based on leaks from the whistleblower Edward Snowden – the Indonesian ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, returned to Canberra last week.

The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, has had several meetings with Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa about the new code, and has said she had told Indonesia that Australia would “not use its resources, our intelligence resources, to the detriment of our friends and neighbours, and that includes Indonesia”.

