Australia and Indonesia are close neighbours and strategic partners. Their collaboration plays a crucial role in promoting stability and security in the Indo-Pacific, as highlighted by the 2024 Defence Cooperation Agreement.
Supported by the Indonesia-Australia Economic Cooperation Agreement (IA-CEPA), Jakarta is also one of Australia’s major trade partners —and its importance will only grow as Indonesia is set to become the world’s fifth-largest economy by 2045.
As both countries seek to deepen their partnership, however, they face a complex set of security and economic challenges, ranging from a potential trade war to the impacts of climate change.
His Excellency Dr Siswo Pramono LL.M, Indonesian Ambassador to Australia will join us in Perth on 29 April, to discuss these issues and explore opportunities to deepen the Australia-Indonesia relationship. Professor Gordon Flake, Chief Executive Officer of the Perth USAsia Centre will moderate the discussion.
Guest speaker
His Excellency Dr Siswo Pramono LL.M
Indonesian Ambassador to Australia
Dr Siswo Pramono, LL.M. is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to Australia and the Republic of Vanuatu. Prior to this position, he was Director General/Head of The Foreign Policy Strategy Agency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. He attained Ph.D degree from the Australian National University, and LL.M degree from Monash University, Australia.
Dr Pramono completed his professional diplomatic training in the diplomatic schools of Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Jakarta, and the Clingendael Institute of International Relations, The Netherlands. As a career diplomat, he served in various Indonesian diplomatic missions abroad, including The Indonesian Embassies in The Netherlands and Germany. As a scholar, Dr Pramono is a non-tenured Lecturer in various universities, namely Airlangga University, Cendrawasih University, as well as a fellow at the The Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) and Charles Darwin University, Australia.
Discussion moderator
Professor Gordon Flake
Chief Executive Officer, Perth USAsia Centre
Having spent twenty-five years in the US foreign policy community focused on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia and now ten years in Australia’s Indian Ocean capital he is an expert on key strategic relationships in the broader Indo-Pacific. He has authored many scholarly and policy studies on security developments in the region, and their policy implications for the US and its regional partners. Since establishing the Centre in 2014, Professor Flake has worked to build stronger international relationships between Australia, the US and the broader Indo-Pacific. He has led the growth of several major international conferences in Australia and the region; and established a range of high-level diplomatic and policy dialogues on issues of shared concern for the Indo-Pacific.
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