As PM Abbott refuses to follow US President Obama’s example of apologising for phone taps of foreign leaders, here are some more links from the Lowy Interpreter on the building furor:
- The last time Indonesia’s ambassador to Canberra was withdrawn was in March 2006. On that occasion,Ambassador Hamzah Thayeb stayed out of the country for about two months.
- The Lowy Institute’s Distinguished International Fellow Kurt Campbell on Lateline last night: ‘I’m afraid you’re in for a few uncomfortable months in your bilateral relationship’.
- Wall Street Journal Asia collects all the best quotes (paywall).
- ‘All the players are locked into inescapable lines’: Michelle Grattan writing for The Conversation.
- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reportedly tweeted in Bahasa: ‘We will also review a number of bilateral cooperation measures due to the painful treatment by Australia… I also deplore the statement of the Australian Prime Minister for treating lightly the wiretapping of Indonesia without admitting guilt.’
- SBY is being encouraged to expel ‘two or three’ Australian and US diplomats from Indonesia.
- Was the decision to tap senior Indonesian officials’ phones made in the wake of the July 2009 Jakarta bombings?
- Indonesia expert Damien Kingsbury calls on the Australian Government to apologise ‘for any offence caused.’ US Senator John McCain recently advised President Obama to do something similar for Chancellor Angela Merkel: Knowing how angry Angela Merkel was, he should have apologized. You know, I’ve had to do that on numerous occasions in my life. The pain doesn’t last very long.
Commercial reprisals will be on the agenda shortly.
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