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View all search resultsBound by friendship: Australia-Indonesia defense relationship
True security isn't built on policy papers or steel, but on the enduring, human-to-human friendships that anchor the Australia-Indonesia alliance.
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Indonesian Navy personnel aboard warship KRI Dorang-874 (right) complete the joint exercise Cassoex 2024 with the Australian warship HMAS Broome 90 (left) in the waters between Indonesia and Australia in the Indian Ocean, on July 28, 2024. (Antara/Indonesian Navy Eastern Fleet Command)
F
ifteen years ago, the Indonesia-Australia Defence Alumni Association (IKAHAN) was established under a simple but profound conviction: the relationships formed between Indonesian and Australian defense personnel should not end when a course concludes or a joint exercise is completed. Today, at over 5,000 members strong, IKAHAN stands as Indonesia’s first defense alumni association and one of the most meaningful bridges between our two nations.
While Australia and Indonesia have shared a close defense relationship dating back more than 75 years to Indonesia’s independence, IKAHAN’s inception 15 years ago did not begin with a policy paper. It began with something far more foundational: people.
Beneath their different uniforms, young cadets discovered they shared the same hopes, discipline, and desire to serve. As the years passed, those foundational friendships remained. IKAHAN has enabled them to grow, adapt and thrive.
Over the past decade and a half, the association has proven that the strongest partnerships between nations are built by people who consistently show up for one another. This is the story of IKAHAN, and in many ways, it is also my own.
In 2012, as a newly promoted major, I joined the Young Future Leaders forum in Australia. During that visit, I learned that my late grandfather, Gen. Sarwo Edhie Wibowo had attended a command and staff college in Australia. This deeply personal revelation showed me that the Australia-Indonesia defense relationship does not belong to governments alone; it belongs to the generations of soldiers, alumni and young leaders who carry it forward.
Later, in 2015 and 2016, I participated in Exercise Wirra Jaya Ausindo, a bilateral military exercise, while serving as commander of the 203rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion. During these field exercises, I discovered something no act of diplomacy can manufacture.
When you carry the same load, share the same hardships, and celebrate the same small victories, a shift occurs: you stop seeing a foreign army, and you begin seeing brothers in arms. These are precisely the kinds of bonds IKAHAN is designed to protect.
