Nurturing a strong Indonesia-Australia partnership By H.E. Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Australia Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the 2014 G20 Summit.
Indonesia is commemorating its 70th independence anniversary on   August 17, 2015.
Indonesia's relationship with Australia stretches back almost as far as those seven decades. 
In   September 1945, Australian maritime workers boycotted hundreds of Dutch ships loaded with arms, supplies and troops that were planning to set sail to Indonesia and deny the young Republic its independence.
Those boycotts were called 'black bans'.
Since that fateful year, the Indonesia-Australia relationship has continued to develop. If I can characterise the relationship between Australia and Indonesia, it is one that is similar to a multicultural couple.
We live in the same house (or region), and despite some differences and the occasional frustrations, we commit to making the living arrangement work and to helping each other achieve our goals.
As we all know, Australia and Indonesia are bound together by geography and regional interests but are widely different in terms of population, development, and cultural background.
Australia is an advanced Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member with 24 million people that love rugby, cricket and Vegemite. Indonesia has ancient civilisation roots and is an emerging economy with almost a quarter of a billion people from many cultural backgrounds that love badminton, soccer and the traditional food sambal terasi.
The differing views on capital punishment, asylum seekers, live cattle export and the spying scandal for example, have tested our bilateral relations. But I firmly believe our public, businesses, education sectors and governments from all political persuasions are pragmatic about the needs to nurture a strong Indonesia-Australia partnership.
Despite our differences, Australia and Indonesia have many common interests that bring us together. Our shared core interests include stability and sovereignty in the Asia-Pacific, an open trade and investment regime that is conducive for economic growth in the region, and denying terrorists, extremists and organised criminals from using our countries as their playground. Our shared core values include democracy, freedom of speech and an open economy, to name a few.
Over the last few decades Australia and Indonesia have built, expanded and deepened sectors of cooperation that have lowered barriers to trade, made it easier to do business and invest in each other's economies, strengthened our security, contributed to our region's stability and peace, and laid the foundation for sustainable development.
More Indonesians are studying in Australia than ever before, more Australians are holidaying in Indonesia, and thanks to the New Colombo Plan more Australians are studying in Indonesia. Businesses are expanding trade between our borders and we enjoy a much closer and more intense military and police cooperation.
However, much like a couple living in close proximity, hiccups in the relationship sometimes occur.
On trade relations, with 14 billion Australian dollars traded between Indonesia and Australia in 2014, Indonesia is the 12th largest trading partner of Australia.
But it is still ranked Australia's fourth largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, behind a few other Association of Southeast Asia Nations members.
There is plenty of room to grow. Even though Indonesia imports billions of dollars' worth of agricultural products such as wheat, cereal and beef from Australia, the import of Indonesia's main agricultural produce, palm oil, from Indonesia into Australia dropped to negligible amounts in 2014. It is important for officials from both countries to lower barriers to trade to have a more balanced and harmonious two-way trade structure.
With the soon-to-be completed sister port agreement between the Port of Townsville and Pelindo, the Indonesia Port Corporations, trade is set to expand even further between Indonesia and northern Queensland and other parts of Australia.
Focusing on the positives of the relationship and working to achieve the common interests that bind our two countries, I think, is one of the best ways for us to rebuild our relationship.
In the Southeast Asian and South Pacific regions, Australia and Indonesia have enjoyed years of cooperation and productivity.
As noted by many observers, the strong support of Indonesia, including its president, was crucial for Australia in gaining a place at the ASEAN table. Our productive relationship includes ensuring regional stability via our works in the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Bali Process, bilateral and regional counter-terrorism forums, and a number of forums in the South Pacific. Australia initiated the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit, and Indonesia was the birth place of APEC's historic commitment to free trade in 1994.
Many of these collaborations have helped to expand trade and investment in the Asia- Pacific. Those collaborations have also contained regional threats from illegal arms trade and terrorism, from drug trafficking to people smuggling.
Bilaterally, our links at a government level are moving from relying mostly on personal ties to institutionalising the dialogues. Our foreign, defence and trade ministers have regular strategic talks and regular consultations below ministerial levels between our officials occur frequently throughout the year.
As we are bound together, our only option is to keep talking and investing in each other to build trust and close the cultural gap between our two nations.
Returning to the multicultural couple analogy, the bigger the commitment to the relationship and the more frequent and frank the talks on many issues, the closer Australia and Indonesia become.
If a problem arises in the future - and it will almost certainly will - we need to remind ourselves of a few things before we rush in with policies and actions. We need to remind ourselves of our shared history - the 'black bans' in support of Indonesia and the diplomatic support for Australia to gain a place in ASEAN as a dialogue partner. We need to remind ourselves of our shared vision for the region and we need to remind ourselves of our common Indonesia-Australia values and interests.