Anthony Albanese lands in Makassar on final day of Indonesian visit

Anthony Albanese has explained why he took the unique step for an Australian prime minister of visiting Indonesian city of Makassar.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday landed in the port city, the capital of the island of Sulawesi, where Australia has opened a diplomatic outpost.

“We had a very successful visit in Jakarta and a wonderful warm welcome from President Widodo,” the Prime Minister, dressed in Indonesian traditional dress, told reporters.

“And the Indonesian government were very pleased when I made a request to visit Makassar.”

Mr Albanese said he wanted to send the message that Australia understood Indonesia was a vast, diverse nation, beyond the well-known hubs of Jakarta and Bali.

“Makassar has a great future as part of Indonesia’s growth, which will see it grow to one of the top five economies in the world in coming years,” he said.

Mr Albanese touched on Makassar’s history as a port city with longstanding ties to Indigenous Australians.

“I’m very pleased to be here in Makassar that, of course, has centuries of involvement going back to the trade that occurred between seafarers here in Makassar and the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land,” he said.

Mr Albanese later spoke about the need to diversify Australia’s export partners, particularly given China’s sanctions on Australian goods.

Because at one stage, the trade proportion for China was up about 45 per cent,” he told reporters.

“We need to make sure that we diversify the opportunities which are there. Indonesia is obviously a very important element in that.”

China has in the past two years targeted a range of Australian export sectors including beef, wine, barley and coal with tariffs and other trade actions, as the relationship between Beijing and Canberra soured.

Mr Albanese on Monday said the sanctions posed by China were “unjust and should be removed” and that his position on the matter hadn’t changed.

He said Indonesia and India stood out as “representing enormous opportunity” as trading partners for Australia.

“For a long period of time, Australia looked at our place in the world as an island continent located where we are and spoke about the tyranny of distance from Europe and North America, the big growth centres,” he said.

Mr Albanese also visited a university in Makassar where he delivered a speech promoting the cultural ties between Australia and Indonesia.

He reaffirmed his government’s commitment to transitioning to renewable energy and working to tackle climate change in partnership with Indonesia.

Mr Albanese also said he was proud his ministry had for the first time two Muslim Australians in Ed Husic and Anne Aly.

“This is the enduring value of Australian multiculturalism and the great spectrum of Australia’s religious and cultural diversity,” he said.

Indonesia is home to world’s largest Muslim population, with more than 200 million followers of Islam.

Mr Albanese is due to tour a local flour mill — the second largest in Indonesia and one of the largest in the world — which uses Australian wheat and exports the end product back to Australia.

Mr Albanese has been travelling with Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Industry Minister Ed Husic, Trade Minister Don Farrell and Labor MP Luke Gosling, who is representing Darwin.

The Labor frontbenchers have been joined by a contingent of Australian business leaders.

Mr Albanese on Monday visited Jakarta where he met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

The two leaders held their first official meeting since Mr Albanese was sworn in as prime minister. They also went for a cycle around the gardens of the presidential palace in Bogor.

Mr Albanese confirmed he would attend the G20 summit in Bali in November even if Russian President Vladimir Putin follows through on his commitment to attend.