Australia under pressure to lift Indonesia warning
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Australia is under pressure to lift its travel warning to Indonesia after the United States cancelled a similar alert, a report said.
The US cancelled its travel warning over the weekend, saying the security climate no longer warranted it. AAP said the alert had been in place since November 2000, following a series of bombings in Jakarta, and later in Bali.
“The US has lifted the warning due to objective improvements made by Indonesia in its current security situation,” the US Embassy said in a statement.
Australia’s travel warning has been in place since it 88 citizens in the 2002 Bali bombings. A spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was quoted saying that other countries would follow the lead of the US.
“The US move is warmly greeted by Indonesia – Indonesians have always believed that their country is safe,” spokesman Dino Pati Djalal was quoted saying.
“A terrorist attack can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time, so I think the lifting of the travel warning by the US is reconfirmation of what we have been saying and doing all this time and we welcome it”
AAP said Australia’s travel warning has long been a bone of contention with its Asian neighbour.
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