Jakarta: Indonesian President Joko Widodo should urgently visit Australia to reset relations at the highest levels, a former Indonesian vice-foreign affairs minister says.
The comments came as Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he expected to meet Mr Joko  at upcoming international forums.
Asked if the pair had spoken since the executions of two Bali nine members, Mr Abbott   said there had been "communication backwards and forwards".  
Dino Patti Djalal, also a previous ambassador to the United States, said his former government, headed by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, handed over the relationship in a "solid state" and it was up to Mr Joko to "take up the baton" and establish a personal relationship with Mr Abbott.
Describing Australian ties as the most important bilateral relationship that Mr Yudhoyono sought to "get right" upon entering office in 2004, Dr Djlal urged the Joko government to "step up its game".
"I think he [Mr Jokoi] needs to resend a signal that Indonesia-Australia relations are important for Indonesia," he told Fairfax Media. 
Asked what sort of signal the President should send, Dr Djlal cited a state visit, new policy moves and telephone calls.
"My experience is that this kind of relationship doesn't work unless you have personal relationships at the top and you can call anytime."
He said the time would come when Indonesia would need to call on its friends and it was important for the President to have the right friends in the club.
"The thing is you don't want to call when you need something but you need to make strategic decisions which friends you want to be on that basis with," he said.
He pointed to former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd's constant phone calls with Mr Yudhoyono  regarding the G20 as one example of when the top-level relationship mattered and served both countries' interests.
"That would not be effective under the foreign minister co-ordination. It requires very top level co-operation, so he needs to get really close at the top with Tony Abbott," he said.
Mr Abbott, who came to office promising a "more Jakarta, less Geneva" foreign policy, was asked on Thursday to state when the last conversation between the pair took place.
"Look, I spoke to the Indonesian President, as you know, on a number of occasions in respect of some Australians who were on death row in Indonesia," he said. 
"There has been communication backwards and forwards between myself and the President since then.
"I'm looking forward to meeting the President again sometime - I suspect several times - between now and the end of the year, given that the conference season is upon us." he said in Melbourne.
President Joko, a former furniture salesman, mayor and governor, is inexperienced in international affairs and his foreign policy agenda as he nears the end of his first year in office remains a mystery to Indonesia watchers. 
Dr Djlal said  the President still had no foreign policy staff. 
Australia-Indonesia relations reached a nadir earlier this year after the new President proceeded with executing Australian drug runners Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran despite their publicly reported rehabilitation.
This resulted in Australia recalling ambassador Paul Grigson for five weeks.  In 2013, Indonesia recalled its ambassador following revelations Australian spies had tapped the phones of Mr Yudhoyono and his wife.
Ministerial relations have thawed, with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop holding in Sydney this week her second face-to-face meeting with her Indonesian counterpart. Retno Marsudi. since the killings.
Ms Bishop is scheduled to visit Indonesia in mid-  October following Justice Minister Michael Keenan's recent visit, the first by an Australian minister since the executions.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb is also planning a visit with a delegation of potential infrastructure investors, and Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek arrived in Jakarta for a two-day visit on Thursday. Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce is also planning a visit.
Latika Bourke is in Indonesia as a recipient of the Department of Foreign Affairs' Elizabeth O'Neill award.
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