Australian Prime Minister John Howard was full of praise for new Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri after he met her Sunday at the start of a fence-mending visit here.
Howard, who is the first foreign leader to encounter Megawati since she replaced the sacked Abdurrahman Wahid, held a 30-minute meeting with the president during a courtesy call to the Merdeka Palace.
He is due to hold more detailed talks with Megawati Monday.
"I personally am encouraged from my first meeting with her that Indonesia's president wants a good relationship with Australia," Howard said after the meeting.
He said that he believed that Megawati has a sense of goodwill towards Australia and was very impressed by the readiness of the president to look ahead.
"It is very positive for relations between our two countries."
He said that in his brief discussion with Megawati, both had struck a tone of realism.
"We recognized that there were some differences in the past but more importantly, there was a great deal of residual goodwill and a recognition of the closeness of our two countries, geographically and strategically," he said.
Indonesian State Secretary Bambang Kesowo, speaking to journalists after the palace visit, said Megawati was hopeful both leaders could enjoy a relationship that "is more mature in looking at the reality."
"Madam the president also explained that there were a lot of tough work ahead which must be solved ... but they both hoped for better cooperation," Kesowo said.
Before leaving Sydney, Howard acknowledged that Australia and Indonesia had had problems in the past but he was hoping to build a good rapport with the new president.
"Our relationship has had difficulties in the past and we don't in any way pull back from anything Australia has done in the past but we do look to the future."
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda, who met Howard as he arrived in Jakarta, said: "these high level contacts are the right track to develop ourselves as good neighbors and friends ... it is always good and positive to talk."
Wirayuda hailed Howard's decision to visit Indonesia "a very good and positive gesture."
"I think we have moved beyond fence-mending," he said.
The two nations fell out over Australia's perceived support for East Timor's independence from Jakarta and its subsequent leadership of a peacekeeping force deployed in the former Indonesian province in 1999.
Australia had pushed for the deployment of UN-sanctioned peacekeeping troops in East Timor to stem an orchestrated campaign of terror mounted by Indonesian-backed militias.
The United Nations authorised the peacekeepers' deployment after the militias embarked on a bloody rampage after East Timor's August 30, 1999, referendum result in favour of independence from Indonesia.
Wahid helped put relations back on track when in June he became the first Indonesian leader to visit Australia in 26 years.
But ties between the countries suffered another recent setback when Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer warned Jakarta against human rights abuses against separatists in Aceh and Irian Jaya.
Wirayuda said that he believed the issues of Indonesia's sovereignty over those two regions and its moves to rid them of separatism would be "mentioned" during talks between the two leaders scheduled for Monday.
Kesowo said development in East Timor would also be touched on in the talks Monday.
The Australian prime minister is also scheduled to have separate talks with the chairmen of the lower and upper houses of parliament, Amien Rais and Akbar Tanjung later on Monday -- JAKARTA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
