Indonesia has suspended all military cooperation with Australia over "technical" issues, the Indonesian armed forces said Wednesday, with some reports saying the move came after "insulting" material was found at an Australian base. Cooperation would resume once those "technical matters" were resolved, Indonesian military spokesman Major General Wuryanto said. "We continue to communicate with them to sort out the issues," he said, without giving any further details. Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne confirmed that "Indonesia has informed Australia that defence cooperation would be suspended." She said some concerns were raised by an Indonesian officer last month "about some teaching materials and remarks at an army language training facility in Australia." Payne said the incident was being investigated, while "some interaction between the two defence organizations has been postponed until the matter is resolved." "Australia is committed to building a strong defence relationship with Indonesia, including through cooperation in training. We will work with Indonesia to restore full cooperation as soon as possible," Payne said. The Kompas daily from Indonesia reported that the decision had been made in December after Indonesian army special forces trainers spotted materials in an Australian military training centre that were "insulting" to the Indonesian military. When the trainers complained to the school, they saw more text they considered insulting to Indonesia's state ideology, Pancasila, the report said. Wuryanto told Australian Associated Press that it may be one of the reasons, "but the main point is, there are technicalities that must be solved in improving this cooperation relationship." Relations between Indonesia and Australia are often testy.
