Australia to take some time to reflect on Indonesia's response on spying scandals: PM

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CANBERRA, Nov.27 -- Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday that his government is going to take some time to reflect on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's response to restore the bilateral relations in the wake of spying scandals.

According to local media, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has responded to a letter from Tony Abbott on Tuesday about spying allegations by asking Australia to sign up a new code of conduct that would include guarantees about spying activities.

According to Yudhoyono, bilateral cooperation on things like people smuggling will not resume until Australia signs up to the new agreements.

In addition, before Yudhoyono's response Tuesday night, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed the damage was obvious.

"We're working very hard behind the scenes. We're doing a lot to ensure that the relationship will remain one of our most important priorities," she said in Sydney.

Abbott said on Wednesday that the response was a "good way forward". "What the president is proposing is that trusted envoys should meet in the next few days to resolve any outstanding issues in the relationship," he said. "I'm going to reflect on the statement over the next day or so and then we'll be responding more fully."

Abbott also said he'd like to see a "security round table" established in the future so both nations could be more open with each other and build greater mutual trust.

"Obviously, that relationship does depend on a great deal of intelligence sharing," he said. "I want to deepen and extend that in the weeks and months ahead."

And he said Australia and Indonesia should emerge from the rocky period on an "even stronger and better footing". "While this has been a stressful week, in all relationships there are difficulties as well as strengths," he said.

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