Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned that Australia can expect a negative reaction from Indonesia if it follows the United States by shifting its embassy to Jerusalem.
Turnbull, who lost the leadership in August this year, spoke to reporters after meeting Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the tourist island of Bali on Monday to discuss a bilateral free trade deal.
"The president expressed to me ... the very serious concern held in Indonesia about the prospect of the Australian Embassy in Israel being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Turnbull told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview aired on Tuesday.
"There's no question that were that move to occur, it would be met with a very negative reaction in Indonesia.
"This is after all the largest majority-Muslim country in the world, so we have to be very clear-eyed about that and we have to take into account Australia's national interest and our interests in the region when we ... consider decisions like this."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who succeeded Turnbull, said on Tuesday no decision had been made yet on an embassy move.
Morrison sent Turnbull to represent Australia at a climate change conference in Bali because of the former leader's close personal rapport with the Indonesian president, who was disappointed that Turnbull's government colleagues replaced him in August in response to poor opinion polling.
Turnbull said he was confident that a free-trade deal between Australia, a nation of 25 million people, and nearby Indonesia, with a population of more than 260 million people, would be signed within weeks.
Turnbull also said Australia should stick with its policy of more than 40 years and keep its embassy in Tel Aviv.
Morrison, a long-time ally of Turnbull's who had argued against replacing him in the leadership ballot, floated the idea of shifting the embassy days before a by-election in Turnbull's Sydney electorate, which has a large Jewish population.
The government lost the by-election, which was forced by Turnbull's resignation from Parliament, and its single-seat majority in the House of Representatives.
"Australia will always make our decisions on our foreign policy based on our interests and we'll do that as a sovereign nation," Morrison told reporters.
"We'll consult, we'll listen to others, but at the end of the day ... I will always put our interests first."
The Trump administration turned its back on decades of U.S. policy last December by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and in May, it moved the U.S. Embassy there. The decision angered the Muslim world and was a setback for the Palestinians, who see east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, as the capital of a future independent state.
Morrison said Australia remains committed to finding a two-state solution.
Morrison's first overseas trip as prime minister was to Indonesia, an ardent supporter of the Palestinian cause, in a sign of the importance Australia places on the bilateral relationship.
