KONEKSI Knowledge and Innovation exchange
Speech
November 19, 2025
Hosted by KONEKSI
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Selamat pagi. It’s my great pleasure to be here this morning in Yogyakarta.
I would like to acknowledge our distinguished guests,
Yang saya hormati:
- Professor Agus Haryono, Deputy for Research and Innovation Facilitation, National Research and Innovation Agency
- Bapak Tri Saktiyana, Deputy for Economy and Development, Yogyakarta Provincial Government
- Dr Yos Sudarso, Director for Partnership and Downstreaming, Ministry of Higher Education
- Ibu dan Bapak sekalian.
Saya senang dapat hadir di acara KONEKSI Knowledge and Innovation Summit.
As Australia’s Special Envoy for Indian Ocean Affairs – and a longstanding supporter and advocate for the Australia-Indonesia relationship – I am delighted to be in Yogyakarta.
This city has a long connection with Australia through a strong-sister province relationship with the State of Victoria, focusing on cooperation in cultural, education, and industry exchanges.
I have been lucky to visit Indonesia many times and have met many wonderful people.
During these visits, I have tried delicious food, learnt some Bahasa Indonesia and about Indonesia’s rich culture and history.
Through these experiences I have also witnessed the strength of Australia’s partnership with Indonesia, and seen the shared bond between our people, and between our nations.
Bapak dan Ibu sekalian, there is no more important partner for Australia than Indonesia. And no nation is more important to the prosperity, security and stability of the Indo-Pacific than Indonesia.
This statement was conveyed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his first visit to Indonesia after being elected as the Australian Prime Minister for the second time in May last year.
I am also pleased I was able to join President Prabowo at a lunch hosted by the Governor-General last week in Sydney.
The same day our leaders announced that Australia and Indonesia had substantively concluded negotiations on a new bilateral Treaty on Common Security.
This agreement and regular exchange between our leaders are significant.
It shows that Australia and Indonesia are committed to strengthening diplomatic ties, fostering people-to-people links, and building institutional linkages.
This is particularly true for our education and research partnership.
Each year, more than 20,000 students from Indonesia choose to study in Australia.
Our scholarships program, Australia Awards, is the longest running foreign government scholarship in Indonesia.
We now have three Australian universities (Monash, Deakin and the University of Western Sydney) with branch campuses in Indonesia, supporting Indonesia as a global hub for education.
Over 13,500 students have undertaken study and work-based experiences in Indonesia through our New Colombo Plan.
There are currently hundreds of academic and research partnerships between Australian and Indonesian institutions that drive innovation and build capacity and capability across our two countries.
Through KONEKSI alone, over 80 innovative R&D projects, involving over 350 institutions in Australia and Indonesia, have produced innovative solutions in areas such as climate change, food security, electric vehicles, energy transition and digital transformation.
I am confident that today’s discussion on climate change, made possible through the KONEKSI program, will create a collaborative space for Australian and Indonesian researchers, academics, local government, industry and civil society to promote their innovative solutions to address this challenge together.
Bapak dan Ibu sekalian, to conclude, I thank Pak Tri Saktiyana Professor Agus and everyone present here today.
I hope to see stronger education and research ties between our two countries into the future, including to strengthen our institutional and people-to-people links, learn from each other and together grow into the global leaders of tomorrow.
Matur nuwun dan selamat berdiskusi.