Australia should seek a more comprehensive peacekeeping partnership with Indonesia, a country that has become highly experienced in the field.

Through frequent joint training exercises, the Australian Defence Force can learn from the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and play a key role in containing growing unrest in the region. Eventually, the ADF and TNI should together conduct peacekeeping operations, not just training.

Joint efforts in peacekeeping would also strengthen the relationship between the two-armed forces.

In the 2020–2024 Plan of Action for the Australia–Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), the two countries committed to strengthening cooperation in peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations. But they did not specify how this would work in practice.

Expiry of the plan of action this year presents an opportunity for Canberra to advocate for a more substantive Australia–Indonesia peacekeeping relationship under a renewed CSP.

The renewed CSP should establish regular joint peacekeeping exercises between forces of the two countries. Peacekeeping training centres in each country should frequently host defence personnel and cadets from the other. This should be possible, since both the ADF Peace Operation Training Centre (ADF POTC) and the TNI’s Peacekeeping Centre (PMPP Sentul) already host defence cadets from other countries. Canberra and Jakarta made a start when they agreed to establish a permanent Indonesian instructor position at the ADF POTC.

In such places as the Philippines, Georgia and Nepal, the TNI has gained much more experience in peacekeeping than the ADF, whose peacekeeping efforts have dwindled. At present, the TNI’s Garuda Contingent (Konga) has more than 2000 peacekeepers in eight conflict zones, including Lebanon and Mali.

There is already recognition of the value to Australia of cooperating with Indonesia in this area. Last year at PMPP Sentul the Australian Army’s Major Matthew Breckenridge said, ‘Australia doesn’t have large contingents on UN peacekeeping missions, so working with the Indonesians, who send thousands of people yearly, provides the ADF valuable knowledge.’ Breckenridge teaches and provides mentoring to up to 1200 Konga members at a time in the PMPP training centre.

A strengthened peacekeeping capability in cooperation with Indonesia would serve Australia well if unrest broke out in, for example, a Pacific island country, and demanded military intervention—which China might be all too keen to provide if others didn’t.

The Australia–Indonesia partnership should extend eventually to co-deployment of peacekeeping operations, in which one of the two countries, usually Indonesia, would take the lead on the ground while the other played a supporting role. For this, they would need to set up an Australia-Indonesia Peacekeeping Taskforce, which would assess the benefits of cooperation in conflict zones on a case-by-case basis. Priority should be given to current or future conflict zones in the Indo-Pacific. Mutual support would likely be welcomed by both the ADF and the TNI, as peacekeeping operations are often undertaken in extremely challenging and complex environments.

The two countries did announce their intention for co-deployment on a UN peacekeeping mission in 2019, with the aim of strengthening military training cooperation. However, they provided no further information on how such a deployment would be managed and coordinated nor even where they would be keeping the peace. Nevertheless, in 2021 Australia gave Indonesia 15 Bushmaster armoured vehicles for peacekeeping.

Indonesia and Australia have experience working alongside each other in conflict zones, as regular contributors to the UN Department of Peace Operations, but the deployments have not been integrated with each other. Australian and Indonesian UN peacekeeping deployments have overlapped in places like Cambodia (1991 to 1993) and Namibia (1989 to 1990). Peacekeepers from both countries are currently operating in South Sudan.

Australia is the 12th-largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping. ADF personnel have taken part in over 50 peacekeeping operations around the world. In fact, Australians were among the first peacekeepers to be deployed under UN auspices when they monitored the ceasefire between Dutch and Indonesian forces in 1947.

Together, Australia and Indonesia already conduct around 20 exercises a year. The two neighbours also work closely together to prevent people smuggling and human trafficking. However, there is still great potential for bilateral security ties to grow and deepen. Close cooperation in peacekeeping would help.

In Indonesia, Australia has a giant neighbour that now knows a great deal more about this aspect of military capability. It should not lose the opportunity to learn from it.