Jakarta - Indonesia is recalling its ambassador to Australia over allegations that Canberra spied on phone calls of the Indonesian president. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the first lady and Vice-President Boediono were reportedly amongst those targeted.
The allegations came from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden which were published by broadcaster ABC and the Guardian newspaper. Indonesia said the ambassador was being called to Jakarta for "consultations". It is the latest in a series of spying allegations that have strained relations between the two allies. On 1 November Indonesia summoned Australia's ambassador amid reports that Australia's Jakarta embassy was used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia.
The latest leaked document showed that Australia spy agencies named Mr Yudhoyono, the first lady, Vice-President Boediono and other senior ministers as targets for monitoring, the reports said. The presentation from Australian spy agency the Defence Signals Directorate (now known as the Australian Signals Directorate) showed that agencies attempted to listen to Mr Yudhoyono's calls at least once, and tracked calls made to and from his mobile phone, in August 2009, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Guardian added.
The news organisations published slides from the presentation, which appeared to show a list of Indonesian "leadership targets" and the handset models used by each target, as well as a diagram of "voice events" of the Indonesian president in August 2009.
One slide entitled "Indonesian President voice intercept (August '09)" appeared to show an attempt to listen to the content of a phone call to Mr Yudhoyono. On Monday, Indonesian Finance Minister Marty Natalegawa said: "This is an unfriendly, unbecoming act between strategic partners."
"This hasn't been a good day in the relationship between Indonesia and Australia." Indonesia was reviewing all of its agreements related to information exchange with Australia, Mr Natalegawa added. (FA)
