JAKARTA, June 6 — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in Indonesia on Monday to meet its President Joko Widodo and shore-up relations between the two neighbours, in his first bilateral visit since being elected last month.
The trip comes as Australia’s new Labor government, which ended almost a decade of conservative rule in a May 21 election, puts greater focus on relations with Southeast Asia and climate change, an issue crucial to its Pacific neighbours, as it navigates ties with a more assertive China. Albanese was also scheduled to meet Lim Jock Hoi, the Jakarta-based secretary general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations , before heading to Makassar in eastern Indonesia.