Indonesia tones down suspension of military cooperation with Australia
Indonesia has softened its suspension of all military cooperation with Australia.
In a statement on Thursday, Cabinet minister Wiranto said the suspension would only apply to language classes at Special Forces facilities.
Indonesia's security minister said the military had not suspended all cooperation with Australia, contradicting a military spokesman who said "all forms of cooperation" had been suspended.
"Steps have been taken by the military chief to suspend a language-training programme in Australia," chief security minister Wiranto said.
"This means it was not a cancellation of all cooperation, as was reported in a lot of media recently."
The comments toned down those made earlier this week where the Indonesian military had suspended defence co-operation with Australia, following allegedly inappropriate material found at a Perth teaching base in 2016.
The suspension was triggered after an Indonesian special forces trainer teaching language studies at a Perth military academy was offended by material being used by an Australian student late last year.
AAP reports the material concerned information taken from the online encyclopedia website Wikipedia about the late General Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, who is considered a national hero in Indonesia.
Wibowo was involved in leading the purge of communists in Indonesia in 1965.
Before West Papua became Indonesian territory, Wibowo oversaw the 1969 referendum dubbed the "An Act of Free Choice" which has since been widely condemned as a sham when only 1025 people were selected to vote.
The Indonesian trainer was also offended by a poster that ridiculed Indonesia's founding ideology, Pancasila.
Pancasila stipulates Indonesia's five principles of religion, civilised humanity, unity, democracy and social justice.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Thursday his military needed to send a 'message' to its Australian counterparts after the discovery of the material.
Earlier, Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said Indonesia had notified Canberra about the suspension, adding in a statement: "Some interaction between the two defence organisations has been postponed until the matter is resolved."
She said it related to "some teaching materials and remarks" at an Australian army language training facility, without giving details.
