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Named as an enemy: Indonesia’s uneasy Aukus moment

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Cite

Siow, M. (2026, September 20). Named as an enemy: Indonesia’s uneasy Aukus moment. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3368035/named-enemy-indonesias-uneasy-aukus-moment?utm_source=rss_feed

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

South China Morning Post · collected 2026-09-20 · by Maria Siow

Quick Summary

In testimony to the Aukus Public Inquiry in Australia on September 2, Michael Pezzullo, a former deputy secretary of strategy in Australia’s defence department, described Indonesia as an enemy in a hypothetical war scenario. This characterization revived historical suspicions between the two nations and was later published by media outlets News24 and The Strategist.
Written by AI on 2026-09-20, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On September 2, Michael Pezzullo, a former deputy secretary of strategy in Australia’s defence department, testified before the Aukus Public Inquiry, an independent crowdfunded review. During his testimony, he cast Indonesia as a potential adversary in hypothetical war scenarios. This characterization has revived old suspicions and tensions between the two nations. News24 first published Pezzullo's remarks on September 5, followed by The Strategist's republication on September 7 under a different headline that emphasized Australia’s progress with submarines through Aukus.

Written for “Indonesia Condemns Aukus Agreement” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Indonesia Condemns Aukus Agreement
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Australia deepens Pacific ties to guard against China Different event
Semafor
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 2 of 4 claims Outlet record 59/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of Australia's foreign policy and defense strategy without describing the same specific incident or occurrence.”
US allies in Asia alarmed as think tank calls for pullback Different event
Deutsche Welle
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 0 of 31 claims Outlet record 95/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of US and allied nations' defense policies but do not describe the same specific incident or occurrence.”
Paul Keating says Aukus locking Australia into a US war against China, which it would ‘certainly lose’ Different event
The Guardian
Hedges 1 of 28 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of Aukus and related commentary from distinct sources and times.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
1
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 1 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
62/100
South China Morning Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-20 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

South China Morning Post · 3740 article(s) · 8 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 8 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Maria Siow
9 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 9 articles by Maria Siow →

Topics

Australia Indonesia News24 The Strategist the Aukus Public Inquiry

Subjects

Australia GPE · 3× Aukus GPE · 2× Indonesia GPE · 2× Aukus moment PERSON · 1× Michael Pezzullo PERSON · 1× News24 ORG · 1× The Strategist ORG · 1× the Aukus Public Inquiry ORG · 1× the Australian Strategic Policy Institute ORG · 1×

Narrative

Named as an enemy: Indonesia’s uneasy Aukus moment Aukus inquiry testimony in Australia cast Indonesia as a foe in a hypothetical war, reviving old suspicions 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”.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-20
2026-09-20 · South China Morning Post
Named as an enemy: Indonesia’s uneasy Aukus moment · assertive framing

Claims (1 extracted, 0 hedged)

Named as an enemy: Indonesia’s uneasy Aukus moment Aukus inquiry testimony in Australia cast Indonesia as a foe in a hypothetical war, reviving old suspicions 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”. asserted
Aukus → name → track
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