Thank you, The Honourable John Howard, Prime Minister,
Thank you, The Honourable Paul Calvert, President of the Senate,
Thank You, The Honourable David Hawker MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Thank you, The Honourable Kim Beazley, Leader of the Opposition.
Thank you all for your warm welcome.

I am happy to be here, but I come with a heavy heart. I am utterly devastated by the helicopter crash in Nias which killed 9 and injured 2 of Australia's finest. Please accept, on behalf of the People and the Government of Indonesia, our deep condolences and profound sadness for this awful tragedy.

They died in glory: the glory of the ultimate sacrifice, the glory of a selfless act to help the suffering of those in need. There is no greater honor than that. And for that, the Indonesian Government will bestown upon the 11 Australians medals of honour-the Satya Lencana Kebaktian Sosial for their outstanding service and sacrifice.

It is a great honour for me to be here with all of you today. I am humbled by the presence of hundreds of distinguished Australian friends who fill this room. I do not know what you have been told, but Russel Crowe is NOT coming to this lunch.

My name is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

I am the only child of parents who lived in a small village in Pacitan, East Java. After graduating from high school, I happily followed my father's footsteps into a military career. And for some reason, history intervened with my life and made me the sixth President of Indonesia.

History also made me the first Indonesian President to visit Australia since 2001. I have a long way to go to catch up with my good friend Prime Minister John Howard, who has visited Indonesia 11 times.

By the way, according to our top secret intelligence report, today, is a very big day for Prime Minister Howard. I hear today today is the 37th Wedding Anniversary of John and Jannette Howard, so my wife and I would like to wish them both a very happy anniversary.

I come here today to bring you the warm greetings and message of friendship from the good people of Indonesia to the good people of Australia.

TSUNAMI

I also bring Indonesia's message of heartfelt thanks and gratitude, especially from the people of Aceh and North Sumatra, for the generous contribution and acts of compassion and solidarity shown by the people and Government of Australia immediately after the tsunami.

I salute the soldiers of the Australian Defense Forces and the Australian relief workers, who worked tirelessly side by side with the Indonesian military, during the emergency relief operations.

Every Australian in this room, and in the living rooms across Australia, who saw our hardship, felt our pain and acted upon it, has every reason to be proud for what you and your country have done for the tsunami victims.

It is humanity and solidarity at its best.

Today, the people of Aceh and North Sumatra are starting to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

Many of the dead have been buried. The survivors and the sick are being looked after. Children are starting to go to school. People are again flocking to mosques for prayers. Families are being reunited. And the provincial Government is coming back to life.

It is true what they say : the greatest rage of nature is no match for the unbreakable will of the human spirit. The spirit to survive. The spirit to live, to love, to give, to overcome.

And let it be remembered that when we in Indonesia were down and out, and when we needed help most, you came and you stood by us.

It will require massive efforts for the Acehnese to get back on their feet. Ultimately, what will save the Acehnese is not just what was done in the first week of the disaster, but more importantly, what is done to help them rebuild their lives in the years to come.

For this purpose, Prime Minister John Howard and I have established the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development (AIPRD), which is a bilateral scheme to help the reconstruction of in Aceh, North Sumatra and other disaster areas in Indonesia. Once again, thank you, Australia.

THE NEED FOR CLOSER RELATIONS

Our tsunami experience unveils one important point: that the relations between Indonesia and Australia are getting stronger, closer, better.

And that is the very purpose of my visit to your great countryw: to affirm our special relations, and to make it even stronger.

Indonesia and Australia have been part of each other's history for ages.

In particular, Indonesians will not forget Australia's firm support for our struggle for independence in the late 1940's.

And over the years, our relations have experienced many twists and turns, highs and lows. We know from experience that our relations are so complex and unique that it can be pulled in so many different directions, and it can go right as often as it can go wrong. Which is why we have to handle it with the greatest care and counsel.

You will all notice that recently, we have begun to relate to each other differently.

We both suffered immensely from the devastating terrorist attacks in Bali on October 12th, 2002.

Two years later, on September 9th 2004, we were shocked, again, by a huge blast outside the gates of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

A few months ago, the tsunami drew our Governments and peoples ever closer together.

And I am particularly honored that Prime Minister Howard graciously attended our Presidential inauguration on October 20 last year, the first Australian Prime Minister to do so in history.
And just 2 days ago, 9 Australians died and two injured in the line of duty after their Sea King helicopter crashed while trying to help earthquake victims in Nias.

A COMPREHENSIVE PARTNERSHIP

So against this backdrop, this morning, Prime Minister Howard and I discussed the same question that was asked by all our predecessors.

That question is: where do we want to take this relationship ? What do we want to do with it ? And what kind of relationship do we want it to be ?

Same questions. But new answers.

I am convinced we can take this friendship between Indonesia and Australia far. Very far.

For we now live in geopolitical and geoeconomic environments that are different from the ones of the previous decades.

Indonesians looking south would now see the richest country in the southern hemisphere, one of the the fastest growing economies in the OECD. A bastion of stability, progress, dynamism.

Indonesians looking south would also see a confident country down under which has reinvented herself successfully, with an open, tolerant society based on multi-culturalism.

Australians looking north would now see that along the equator spans the world's third largest democracy that is Indonesia-third, after India and the United States. In fact, Indonesia would be the world's second largest democracy, after India, if based on voting turn out.

Australians looking north would also see a country that is home to the world's largest muslim population-there are more muslims in Indonesia than in the entire Middle-East. It is also a wondrous place where Islam, democracy and modernity thrive together.

And Australians looking north would also see in Indonesia a bridge to East Asia.

You look at these facts and you just know that the relationship between Indonesia and Australia can be anything BUT ordinary. It is not enough for us to be just neighbors. We have to be strong partners.

Today, Prime Minister John Howard and I reviewed our relations and agreed to commit Indonesia and Australia to a Comprehensive Partnership. One that is forward looking.

By doing so, we are heralding a new era of Indonesia - Australia bilateral relations.

The Comprehensive Partnership is a logical consequence to a relationship that over the years has become so complex, so full of challenges, so full of promises.

The Comprehensive Partnership assumes that the security, prosperity, and stability of Indonesia and Australia are inter-connected.

It assumes that our countries are locked together not just by geography but by a common future, one that can be best harnessed if only we can closely work together for the long-term.

The Comprehensive Partnership will provide the broad framework for all our bilateral cooperation schemes and serve as the primary guide in directing the future of Indonesia-Australia relations that will cover arrangements in the fields of politics and security, economics, as well as socio-cultural affairs.

Through the Comprehensive Partnership, Australia and Indonesia is embarking upon a path that emphasises the importance of our commonalities rather than our differences, one that reflects the richness of our friendship. And this strong partnership between Indonesia and Australia is not only beneficial for ourselves, but can contribute to resolving regional and global issues.

The Comprehensive Partnership is a landmark development in the history of our relations, and the worst thing we can do to it is to take it for granted. In my view, we can help to bolster this Partnership in a number of ways.

First, it would have to build on the existing extensive cooperation and make them more coherent. Indonesia and Australia have teamed up on many great ventures in recent years. We worked together successfully to convene a series of regional conferences on key issues, on counter-terrorism, on people trafficking, on money laundering, and on inter-faith dialogue. These important initiatives are moving forward with practical measures and we should continue to support them.

Secondly, the Partnership would have to be substantiated by closer ties between our officials of all levels. Our leaders, our cabinet members, our politicians, our parliamentarians, our informal leaders -- they can all make this relationship come to life by reaching out to one another. I am glad that the Seventh Australia Indonesia Ministerial Forum in Canberra convened successfully.

Thirdly, the Partnership can only go far if it is substantiated with people-to-people links from all walks of life. Remember: its all about the people.

The Partnership would have to be both top down and bottom up. It would have to have direct relevance to the lives of our people, and it would have to bring our peoples closer, be they students, artists, journalists, tourists, scholars, workers. I am glad to that thousands of Australians visit Indonesia to study, to work, to invest, and to have fun. Similarly, I am pleased to see some 25,000 Indonesians study in Australia. In fact, two of my Ministers are graduates of the Australian National University. And my younger son, Baskoro, also graduated from Curtin University in Perth a few weeks ago.

I am particularly delighted that Prime Minister Howard announced today that the Australian Government will provide some 600 scholarships to Indonesian students.

What a great investment in our peoples and in our common future. Once again, thank you, Prime Minister.

Fourthly, there are different ways to measure the results of our Comprehensive Partnership. We can look at the trade statistics, at the investment figures, at the tourism numbers. These are all important.

But I think the best way to measure the Partnership is in terms of how much trust and confidence develop out of it, how much goodwill it generates, how much we come to understand one another, and how much closer we become.

Ultimately, this is what we need to nurture for the long term.

Finally, the Comprehensive Partnership requires us to recalibrate our relationship. Yes, the tsunami tragedy has made us closer, but ultimately it is NOT agony that drives our Partnership, but the mutual optimism, the firm belief in our shared interests and our common future.

It will be a great learning process for the both of us. We will need to learn from each other, to learn from the past, to draw from each other's strength. And we will need to constructively manage the complex set of issues-some easy, some difficult in our bilateral relations.

In this process of recalibration, I want you to see the Indonesia that I see every day. And I assure you that it is NOT the picture of Indonesia that sometimes--sometimes--are trivialized and treated as caricature in the media.

I hope you see beyond such snapshots and see a nation that, given our seemingly endless natural disasters, has been down on luck lately, but remains high in spirit and strong in will.

I hope you see a resilient people that continues to beat the odds, a nation that continues to bounce back even stronger no matter how hard and how many times we are hit.

I hope you see a vibrant democracy that continues to mature, a promising economy that continues to grow, a dynamic people that is eager to fulfill its potentials.

I hope you see why I am confident that Indonesia will SOON become a vast oasis of peace, progress and stability.
And with all this, I hope you see the enormous possibilities and opportunities that await Indonesia and Australia.

Just imagine the creative energy that can be unleashed by the connection between our two resourceful peoples.

Just imagine the vast area of democratic peace and cooperation that will created between the largest archipelago on the equator and the great continent down under.

And just imagine the world of good that can be brought about between Indonesia and Australia as two fellow democracies.

I leave you with that thought, and I thank you.

Canberra, 4 April 2005