Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday said that his government used intelligence material “for the benefit of our friends” and “to uphold our values,” following fresh reports it spied on Indonesia.
Relations between the neighbors plunged to their lowest ebb in years in November last year after reports that Australia tried to tap the telephones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and several top officials in 2009.
Jakarta responded furiously to the claims, which were based on documents leaked by US intelligence fugitive Edward Snowden, recalling its ambassador and suspending cooperation with Australia on key areas including people-smuggling.
Fresh reports published in the New York Times yesterday allege that Australian agencies spied on Indonesian officials during a trade dispute with the US and offered to share back-room information with the US government.
Abbott refused to confirm the report, also based on Snowden-leaked material, that the Australian Signals Directorate listened in on trade talks between the Indonesians and their US lawyers and offered information gleaned to the US National Security Agency.
“We never comment on operational intelligence matters, that has been the long-standing practice of all Australian governments of both political persuasions,” Abbott told reporters.
However, Abbott said that Australia did not “use anything that we gather as part of our ordinary security and intelligence operations to the detriment of other countries.”
“We use it for the benefit of our friends. We use it to uphold our values,” he said. “We use it to protect our citizens and the citizens of other countries, and we certainly don’t use it for commercial purposes.”
The latest leak comes as as US Secretary of State John Kerry visits Indonesia and as tensions simmer between Canberra and Jakarta over a Australian military operation to turn people-smuggling boats back to Indonesia.
The top secret document allegedly obtained by New York Times did not say which trade dispute was monitored or name the US law firm involved.
Indonesia has been embroiled in trade disputes with the US over its exports of clove cigarettes and shrimp in recent years.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mary Natalegawa has reportedly said that he will raise Australia’s asylum-seeker policies with Kerry, describing them as “against the values of humanity.”
Australian warships strayed into Indonesian waters on several occasions during border patrol operations, testing ties, although Canberra insists the intrusions were inadvertent.
Abbott yesterday said that Australia “deeply respects Indonesia’s sovereignty.
“We want to work as close as possible with Indonesia to crack down on the scourge of people smuggling, which as we all know has cost this country dear,” he said.
Australia’s government has blasted Snowden, with Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop accusing him of “unprecedented treachery” and describing him as “no hero” in a speech in Washington last month.
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