Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said Thursday that security anxiety over China was partly driving deepening ties with Indonesia in a region riven by rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

His visit to meet counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin in Jakarta came weeks after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made Indonesia his first foreign trip following his landslide election win.

Marles said the alliance with Indonesia stood on its own terms, but concerns about China's military build-up in the region influenced Australia's foreign policy thinking.

"We've made no secret of the fact that we have a security anxiety in relation to China. We've made that clear to China itself," Marles, who also serves as deputy prime minister, told journalists in the Indonesian capital.

"It do

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