Geography made Indonesia and Australia neighbours. Policy decides what kind of neighbours they become.

Last Thursday, the Indonesian Institute for Foreign Affairs (IIFA UIII) welcomed a delegation from the Australian National University's National Security College, a group of mid level officials drawn from agencies across the Australian government and led by Ambassador Penny Williams, former Australian Ambassador to Indonesia. The session on defense and security featured Curie Maharani, Ph.D., a defense policy expert from BINUS University, together with Haula Noor, Ph.D., Zezen Zaenal Mutaqin, S.J.D., and A'an Suryana, Ph.D., of IIFA and UIII, and Prakoso Permono, Ph.D., a recent doctoral graduate of UIII now serving at the National Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT), as speakers and moderators. The exchange was frank and practical.

The Jakarta Treaty signed in February gave this relationship a frame. It did not settle the harder question of how two neighbours with different strategic instincts operate together day to day. Turning a treaty into coordinated patrols and working counter terrorism channels falls to officials at exactly the level that filled the room today.