CANBERRA, Australia, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Australia and Indonesia will hold joint maritime surveillance and anti-terror commando exercises this year.
The Australian newspaper, quoting Australian government sources, said no date has yet been decided for either of the exercises but they symbolize improving relations between the two states, which have been at odds most recently over Australia's granting sanctuary to a group of refugees from Papua.
Papua is an Indonesian province, where government forces are fighting separatists.
A spokeswoman for the Australian military said the anti-terror exercise would involve SAS (Special Air Service) commandos and commandos from Indonesia's Kopassus special force.
Among situations covered in the exercise would be hostage-recovery and counter-hijacking.
The last Australia-Indonesia ground counter-terror exercise was held last February and was seen as a milestone - it was the first since relations between Canberra and Jakarta nosedived in 1999 in a dispute over Indonesian control of East Timor, now independent and known as Timor-Leste.
