The economic cooperation between Australia and Indonesia, which evaporated following a row of diplomatic tensions between the two nations, is expected to be reinstated early next year. Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said on Tuesday that he and his Indonesian counterpart, Thomas Lembong, will be reviving the cooperation over Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that had to be held back in 2013.

The partnership agreement commenced in 2012 in Jakarta with the aim to bring together the two nations but a number of diplomatic issues between the two neighbours stalled the cooperation.

Robb said that the two countries are willing to restart the talks and are hopeful about reaching a fruitful agreement within 12 months. Robb will be leading a delegation of 300 people, Australia’s largest-ever business delegation, this week to Indonesia following Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s visit to the country to meet Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo in Jakarta.

"I talked yesterday to my counterpart Tom and he said that they're ready to re-engage as quickly as possible. So we decided the first thing in the new year," Robb told reporters during a visit to Indonesia.

The present picture of trade and economic cooperation between the two nations is not too impressive. Australian businesses are not well represented in Indonesia and the total value of goods and services traded between the two nations stood at only $16 billion in 2014.

"Australia, to some extent, has overlooked Indonesia over the past two decades, concentrating more on building trade in major northern Asian economies," Robb said in Yogyakarta. "Indonesia, likewise, has also been looking north for trade and investment. Indonesia's economy is too big to ignore, with a population of 250 million, more than 50 percent of whom are under 30 and tech savvy.”

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