REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia's minister of defense Purnomo Yusgiantoro said here on Monday Australia must be wiser in dealing with boat people and should not act unilaterally as patrol cooperation and others in the field were not reopened.
"Our official stance is clear we want Australia to be wiser in dealing with the issue, because we (Australia and Indonesia) have not yet reopened our naval cooperation, including joint patrol cooperation or joint exercise cooperation," he said at the presidential palace compound.
He said the pattern of actions used by Australia to deal with the boat people so far were incorrect and caused discomfort.
"Yes. We feel that they must be done correctly and we appeal to the government of Tony Abbot to understand our stance that if the boat people came because of the initiatives of the people they must not be turned back to our country," he said.
He declined to comment on PM Abbot's decision to cancel his visit to Indonesia to attend a conference in Bali this week.
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