Would QANTAS and Garuda ever work together?

Would QANTAS and Garuda ever work together?

As a solution to QF in South East Asia (and perhaps even into India and North East Asia).

Jakarta (despite CGK limitations) is closest big hub north of Australia, with GA flights fanning out across the region (without need for backtracking).

I'm imagining a similar arrangement to QF/EK partnership over DXB to Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Sure CGK isn't nearly as popular as SIN or HKG, however neither SQ or CX are options.

New Garuda network is growing, safety is now under control and the hard/soft product is great. Along with Jakarta's geographical advantage re flying out of Australia and into Asia without backtracking.

Putting Oneworld vs Skyteam issue aside.

I can't honestly see something like this happening between QF and Garuda. Now that Malaysian is in OneWorld, if Qantas really wanted a SE Asia partner they would probably look into a partnership with MAS before Garuda.

If QF and MH and/or CX can't work together, then Garuda have no hope. QF seems he'll bent on feeding customers in Asia on JQ Asia.

There is a certain attraction to a Qantas/Garuda linkup, but I think it depends upon timing. If Qantas find a strong partner in SE Asia and work closely with them, then I think a partnership with Garuda is unlikely.

However, if Qantas continue to drag their feet on a SE Asian partner, in years to come when Garuda is a stronger competitor, and (if) Jakarta airport is sorted out, then Garuda might be so strong that Qantas is almost forced to link up with Garuda, in the same way that they partnered with Emirates once they realised they couldn't compete against them. As they grow Garuda has the opportunity to service many more ports in Australia as the whole country is within narrowbody range, allowing them to serve smaller airports directly. But that would be some years in the future, and many things could happen between now and then. If Virgin Australia opted to join SkyTeam, the dynamics of their relationship with Garuda could be an important factor too. 

I agree that Qantas' membership of OneWorld makes a tie-up with Malaysian, rather than Garuda, more likely in the short-term, but Qantas doesn't even fly to Kuala Lumpur at the moment. In the longer term membership or not of OneWorld could be irrelevant if Qantas find a partner they want/need to work with. They currently codeshare with Star Alliance and Skyteam airlines, and they ditched their partnership with OneWorld member British Airways in favour of Emirates.

The LCC competition in SE Asia is fierce, and Qantas has formally suspended Jetstar Asia's expansion. Is there a possibility that 3K could move upmarket (in a manner similar to Virgin and Air Berlin) to act as a more acceptable codeshare partner for Qantas, i.e. become Qantas Asia?

I think you're right, the current scenrario of flying full service QF 'to Asia' and tranferring to (usually poorly schedualed) low cost JQ Asia is pretty suboptimal; particulay when compared to the offering of SQ, also MH, GA etc.

Now sure Jetstar Asia's network and product quality will or can grow and evolve substantially enough to serve QF in Asia though.

Particularlty in comparison to the prospects of working with GA or even MH.

Indonesia's population size, pace of development and growing economic heft are attractive characteristics. Not to mention the georgrpahic advantage of CGK for travellers from Australia to SE Asia, India and perhaps even China. 

QF/MH relations appear quite limited following Red Q's demise. As for their Oneworld membership, there hasn't been much warmth to date, based on minimal QF frequent flyer mile earning ratios on MH, new codeshares/interlines etc.

Still, I suppose a QF/GA JV is probably just a pipedream :)