A senior advisor to the Indonesian Government has revealed Australia and Indonesia are in discussions over a new asylum seeker exchange deal.

Indonesia refused last week to accept a group of asylum seekers rescued by Australian authorities south of Java.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, an advisor to the Indonesian vice-president who is currently on tour in Australia, has defended Indonesia's decision.

"It should not just be one side imposing its will on the other's," she said.

She says there are discussions between the two countries for a new agreement, in which asylum seekers intercepted by Australian authorities could be sent to Indonesia in exchange for refugees.

"The cost of the burdens would be borne by Australia and then at the same time Australia would take the same number of people that are already sitting in detention centres in Indonesia," she said.

Senior Australian Government frontbencher Christopher Pyne says he has not been told of any such talks between Australia and Indonesia.

"I'm not aware of any people swap negotiations. But if there are any, I'm sure they'll be revealed at the appropriate time."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-12/indonesia-flags-new-asylum-seeker-swap-deal/5084674

Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Australia and is reviewing all co-operation with the country after revelations that Australian spy agencies attempted to listen in to the phone calls of the Indonesian president and his inner circle.

Documents, published by the Guardian and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, show that the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) targeted the phones of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife as well as those of eight other high-profile Indonesian politicians, among them possible successors to Yudhoyono.

The documents show that in August 2009 DSD (now called the Australian Signals Directorate) attempted to listen in on a phone call to Yudhoyono from Thailand. Because the call was too short, "nil further info" was gathered.

A further slide, entitled "Indonesian president voice events", has a graphic of calls on Yudhoyono's Nokia handset over 15 days in August 2009.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/18/indonesia-recalls-canberra-ambassador-phone-australia

So, this is what it looks like when you outsource your foreign policy to Alan Jones. "You do what you like, but we gave you a billion dollars when you were hit by the tsunami," he boomed recently on Q&A, his message directed squarely at the Indonesian President, who had rejected Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran's death-row pleas to have their lives spared. 

The most alarming aspect of Indonesia's response is its allegation that 'people will show their true colours': that our 'threats' are not an isolated faux pas, but reveal something deeply characteristic about us as a nation. 

I'm with Jones on the cause. Very rarely would an execution be more needless than in this apparently inevitable case. Rarely have we seen better cases of demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation. But to use aid – for a disaster in which more than 100,000 Indonesians died – as leverage? That's taking us to dark places.

read more: 

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/fuse-lit-with-rhetorical-bomb-about-indonesia-20150219-13irvx.html