Aukus inquiry testimony in Australia cast Indonesia as a foe in a hypothetical war, reviving old suspicions
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenMaria SiowPublished: 8:00am, 20 Sep 2026A former Australian official’s use of a hypothetical “aggressive Indonesia” to make the case for Aukus at a public inquiry has been called “clumsy diplomacy” by analysts, who say the comments risk reviving old suspicions as Jakarta and Canberra try to strengthen security ties.Michael Pezzullo, a former deputy secretary of strategy in Australia’s defence department, made the remarks in testimony on September 2 to the Aukus Public Inquiry, an independent, crowdfunded review of the trilateral defence pact.
His remarks were first published by media outlet News24 on September 5, then edited and republished two days later by The Strategist, a journal run by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, under the headline “Aukus has put Australia’s submarine effort back on track”.
