Wiretapping Scandal Cools Relations between Indonesia and Australia
Relations between Indonesia and Australia have cooled considerably after it became known that Australia's Intelligence Service agency tried to follow telephone conversations of various high positioned Indonesian politicians as well as their inner circle, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife Kristiani Herawati and vice-president Boediono, for 15 days in August 2009. This information became known a few days ago due to leaked documents by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
As a consequence of the scandal, various Indonesian ministers called for a review of relations between the two countries as well as summoning the Australian ambassador for questioning, particularly after Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to apologize. Today (20/11), Yudhoyono announced that Indonesia will "suspend all intelligence and military cooperation with Australia" as Indonesia will review the wiretapping case first.
Although the Australian government cannot confirm or deny that wiretapping took place in Indonesia in 2009, Australia's Intelligence Service informed Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency (BIN) that currently and in the future there will be no wiretapping.
The wiretapping scandal comes several weeks after Indonesia summoned the ambassador of Australia in early November 2013 amid speculation that Australia's embassy in Jakarta was being used as part of a "USA-led spying network in Asia".
Leaking of secret information is not a new phenomenon. In March 2011, several WikiLeaks-documents came to the surface in which Yudhoyono himself was accused of power abuse, spying on political opponents and influencing court rulings.