Australian Navy Ships Receive Official Welcome on Goodwill Visit to Indonesia

The commanders and crew of two Royal Australian Navy Mine Countermeasure ships have been officially welcomed at Tanjung Priok Harbour today underlining the strong and important navy cooperation between Australia and Indonesia.

The ships, HMAS Gascoyne and HMAS Diamantina, arrived in Jakarta with more than 90 crew for a three day visit (11-14 July) before returning to waters off northern Australia where they will be taking part in one of Australia’s largest multilateral maritime exercises.

Commanding officer of Gascoyne, Lieutenant Commander Max Muller, said he welcomed the opportunity to visit Indonesia.

“The Royal Australian Navy enjoys good relations with the Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) – relations that are based on close personal links, regular dialogue, strategic level talks, operational interaction and training and, more recently, working together to provide humanitarian and disaster relief in the region,” he said.

Both ships are Huon Class Minehunters and are the most advanced of this class of ship in the world, representing the latest in mine countermeasures technology.

The ships were deployed from Sydney on 26 May and have been travelling around South East Asia.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr Bill Farmer, said strengthening defence-to-defence cooperation was an important element of the Agreement between Indonesia and Australia on the Framework for Security Cooperation (Lombok Treaty) which entered into force earlier this year.

“This goodwill visit is a practical example of the ways in which our two countries are continuing to strengthen the defence relationship,” Mr Farmer said.

The Huan class minehunters are all named after Australian rivers with HMAS Gascoyne named after the longest river in Western Australia.

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