Aust, Indonesia unite on terror threat

INDONESIA'S vice president believes relations with Australia are now "much better," after counter-terrorism provided common ground for the first ministerial visit since the Bali Nine executions.
JUSTICE Minister Michael Keenan is on Thursday ending two days of talks with senior government and security figures in Jakarta.
On Wednesday he met Vice President Jusuf Kalla, discussing the shared problem of how to respond to ISIS, and how to better share intelligence on the terror group's activities and influence. He says relations are "getting normal" again after contact was frozen in response to Indonesia's executions of Sydney men Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. The ambassador has returned to Jakarta, and Australian ministers are scheduled to visit every month, Mr Kalla says. "The relationship with between Indonesia and Australia now I think is okay, it is much better compared with a few months ago," he told reporters. President Joko Widodo denied Sukumaran and Chan clemency in January, straining ties for months until their April 29 executions, as Australia pleaded for the men to be spared. Foreign Ministers Julie Bishop and Retno Marsudi broke the ice earlier this month with "very candid" talks in Kuala Lumpur, and a large Australian trade delegation will visit Jakarta in November. Australia and Indonesia have also agreed to hold a counter-terror financing summit in Sydney. Indonesia's PPTAK, the Financial Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre, and its Australian counterpart AUSTRAC have already detected money flowing from Australia to Indonesian groups supporting Islamic State, according to media reports from March.