Jakarta: Indonesian President Joko Widodo (pictured) will head to Australia this weekend for his first visit as head of state to a key ally whose relationship with Jakarta has been repeatedly strained in recent years.
Widodo, accompanied by several cabinet ministers, will be in Sydney tomorrow and on Sunday for the state visit, during which he will hold talks with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the foreign ministry in Jakarta said.
It is his first official trip to Australia since being elected president in 2014.
Ahead of the visit, Widodo reportedly said he would discuss joint patrols of Indonesian and Australian vessels in the hotly contested South China Sea with Turnbull during the trip.
He told the Australian newspaper that he saw joint patrols, potentially around Indonesia's Natuna Islands at the southern edge of the waters, as "very important" so long as they did not raise regional tensions.
Indonesian and Chinese vessels clashed repeatedly in waters around the Natunas last year.
