Named as an enemy: Indonesia’s uneasy Aukus moment

A former Australian official’s use of a hypothetical “aggressive Indonesia” to make the case for Aukus at a public inquiry has been called “clumsy diplomacy” by analysts, who say the comments risk reviving old suspicions as Jakarta and Canberra try to strengthen security ties.

Michael Pezzullo, a former deputy secretary of strategy in Australia’s defence department, made the remarks in testimony on September 2 to the Aukus Public Inquiry, an independent, crowdfunded review of the trilateral defence pact.

Making the case that Aukus’ nuclear-powered submarines offered Australia its best route to undersea military dominance, Pezzullo used Indonesia as an illustrative adversary arguing that in a hypothetical conflict, Australian forces would seek to “rapidly destroy as much of the enemy’s fighting power as possible” without having to call on the United States or other allied forces.

His remarks were first published by media outlet News24 on September 5, then edited and republished two days later by The Strategist, a journal run by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, under the headline “Aukus has put Australia’s submarine effort back on track”.