Common Threat Pulling Old Foes Australia And Indonesia Closer Together

Five years ago Australia banned live exports of farm animals to Indonesia over suspicion of cruel treatment, setting back trade ties. Just two years after that Jakarta vented over allegations that Australian intelligence agents tried to tap Indonesian ex-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's mobile phone. Australia reacted by reviewing relations, including a people smuggling policy crucial to keeping migrants out of Australia. The 2014 presidential election in Indonesia, a 257 million-population developing archipelago in Southeast Asia, delayed any restoration of productive ties with Australia, a much smaller but wealthier country to the south that happens to send a lot of tourists to Bali. Then last year Indonesia executed two Australian citizens for drug offenses, angering people down under again.