India and Indonesia signed pacts on maritime security, health, traditional medicine, culture and digital cooperation on Saturday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
After starting on a high in the late 1940s, on the backs of a common commitment against imperialism and shared democratic principles, ties took a nosedive in the 1960s as Indonesia cozied up to China and Pakistan. Things were better but still not great in the Suharto years. Relations truly took off only in the 1990s, when the P V Narasimha Rao government adopted the ‘Look East’ policy. But there is scope for better ties still.
Solidarity against colonialism
The shared experience of colonialism, and common post-colonial goals of political sovereignty and economic self-sufficiency drove India’s friendly bilateral relationship with Indonesia in the late 1940s and 1950s.
Jawaharlal Nehru was among the foremost global statesmen in support of Indonesian independence during the National Revolution (1945-49).
Indonesia had proclaimed independence in 1945, but the Dutch formally recognised the country’s sovereignty only in 1949. In the intervening four years, the Dutch tried to re-establish their colony — which they had lost to Japan during World War II — through brute military force, while Indonesian nationalists put up spirited resistance.
After taking charge of the Interim Government in 1946, Nehru said in a radio broadcast that “the kernel of India’s foreign policy would be the ending of colonialism all over Asia” and that he would “help and support” Indonesian nationalists “in every way possible”. (as quoted by V Suryanarayan in ‘India and the Indonesian Revolution’, 1981).
Apart from sending supplies and humanitarian aid to the nationalist rebels, Nehru in 1947 banned the Dutch airlines from flying over India. He also pushed the Indian Federation of Labour to issue directives to the Karachi, Bombay and Calcutta dock workers’ unions to “not to handle Dutch shipping or do anything prejudicial to the interests of the Indonesian republic”. (Suryanarayan).
In July 1947, Nehru even sent a young Biju Patnaik to the then besieged Jakarta to evacuate Indonesia Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir and Vice President Mohammad Hatta. Patnaik dodged Dutch anti-aircraft fire to bring the two to New Delhi, from where they headed to the West to represent the Indonesian cause in international fora.
A friendly decade
After the Dutch formally recognised Indonesian independence in December 1949, Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia, was naturally thankful for India’s support. He wrote in an article published in The Hindu on January 5, 1950: “On the eve of the rebirth of our nation, I am trying vainly to measure the gratitude of the Indonesian people to India and to her Prime Minister personally for the unflinching and brotherly support in our struggle in the past.”
Sukarno arrived in New Delhi later that month, and was given the honour of being the chief guest at the first Republic Day celebrations in 1950. Nehru would reciprocate with a state visit to Indonesia a few months later.
This set off roughly a decade of cordiality — trade grew steadily, while cultural and military cooperation blossomed. In March 1951, India and Indonesia signed a Treaty of Friendship which aimed at “perpetual peace and unalterable friendship” between the two countries.
Foreign affairs emerged as the most significant area of cooperation.
“On general questions of nonalignment, Panchsheel (peaceful coexistence), colonialism, apartheid, relations with the West, military alliances, and approach to the communist bloc, and on specific questions such as the peace in Indochina, SEATO, the Suez crisis and the like, both countries consulted each other and presented a community of views,” political scientist L P Singh wrote in his paper ‘Dynamics of Indian-Indonesian Relations’ (1967).
India and Indonesia became chief votaries of independence of Asian and African countries in the UN, the spirit of which led to historic Bandung Conference of 1955, and the subsequent formation of Non-Aligned Movement in 1961. Nehru and Sukarno were among the five founding leaders of NAM along with Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.
Ties take a nosedive
But India’s friendship with Indonesia did not remain “unalterable” for long. Cracks began to emerge in 1959, and ties took a nosedive in the 1960s.
This was largely due to a divergence in New Delhi’s and Jakarta’s respective relations with Beijing. Both India and Indonesia viewed communist China as an anti-imperial ally in the early 1950s. By the time of the Tibetan uprising of 1959, however, India’s relationship with its eastern neighbour had deteriorated significantly. The same was not true for Indonesia.
Sukarno and Nehru also had a personal falling out over the latter’s refusal to have a second Bandung Conference — the first one had brought immense international prestige to Indonesia. At the 1961 Belgrade Summit which officially birthed NAM, Nehru and Sukarno are said to have clashed repeatedly “to a point necessitating friendly intervention by third parties on the very first day of the conference”. (The Times of India, Bombay Edition, September 3, 1961).
When China invaded India in 1962, Indonesia showed little sympathy — let alone solidarity — with its fellow NAM member. And while ties with New Delhi deteriorated, Jakarta drifted closer to Islamabad. Sukarno visited Pakistan several times in 1963-64, as Jakarta gradually abandoned its neutrality vis-à-vis Kashmir.
When war broke out between India and Pakistan in September 1965, Indonesia Foreign Minister Subandrio announced: “It is the obligation of all nations belonging to the new emerging forces to give help to Pakistan to face India’s aggression.” During the war, not only did Indonesia supply weapons to Islamabad, its leaders also fuelled anti-India sentiments among Indonesians, which culminated with a mob attacking the Indian embassy in Jakarta.
The Cold War drift
Domestically, Sukarno had long maintained a precarious balance of power between the Army, the communists, and himself. An attempted left-wing coup in 1965 changed things. The Army retaliated brutally, and the communists were nearly wiped out. This weakened Sukarno, and by 1966 he had effectively handed over all power to General Suharto, a staunch anti-communist who had the backing of the United States.
This effectively broke the Beijing-Jakarta axis — in no small part due to China’s alleged support for the coup of 1965. Suharto promptly started working towards repairing many of the ties that the Sukarno regime had damaged, including the relationship with India. New Delhi reciprocated, and a number of trade agreements were signed in 1967.
But by the 1970s, India under Indira Gandhi had drifted ever closer to the USSR, and was firmly on the side of the communist North during the Vietnam War. The growth of New Delhi’s ties with the US-backed regime in Jakarta thus stagnated. While they never reached the nadir seen in the mid-1960s — New Delhi and Jakarta continued to engage with each other, and a number of crucial agreements were signed, including one in 1977 which determined the maritime boundary between the two countries — relations also did not reach the highs of the early 1950s.
That said, Suharto visited New Delhi in 1980, while Indira and Rajiv Gandhi made trips to Jakarta in 1981 and 1986 respectively.
‘Look East’ & beyond
Relations truly took off only in the 1990s, when the P V Narasimha Rao government launched the ‘Look East’ policy. With the Soviet Union now history, India had to quickly find new friends. And with India beginning on a path towards economic liberalisation in 1991, there was an opportunity to push for trade and economic cooperation like never before.
The ‘Look East’ policy was born in these circumstances with a view to bolster India’s ties with Southeast Asian countries, which at the time were emerging as some of the fastest-growing economies in the world. In 2014, the Narendra Modi government took things to the next level by instituting the more project- and outcome-oriented ‘Act East’ policy.
Since 2000, every President of Indonesia and Prime Minister of India has visited the other country. Bilateral relations in the political, security, defence, commercial and cultural fields have steadily grown as a result.
Indonesia today is the second largest trading partner of India in the ASEAN region (after Singapore). Bilateral trade increased from $4.3 billion in 2005-06 to $38.84 billion in 2022-23 and $29.40 billion in 2023-24.
India is the second largest buyer of coal and largest buyer of crude palm oil from Indonesia, and imports minerals, rubber, pulp and paper, and hydrocarbons reserves. India exports refined petroleum products, commercial vehicles, telecommunication equipment, agriculture commodities, bovine meat, steel products, and plastics to Indonesia.
However, experts say that there is still much scope for improving relations further. As The Indian Express editorial on Saturday put it: “Despite India’s Act East Policy and the importance Delhi attaches to the Indo-Pacific, India’s partnership with Indonesia remains well below its potential.”
With Prabowo visiting New Delhi quite early in his tenure — he assumed office last October — Indonesia and India are well placed to further accelerate trade and bolster economic relations, enhance connectivity, improve maritime security cooperation and step up military exchanges, and begin defence industrial cooperation. The agreements signed on Saturday are a step in that direction.
(In B&W) Jawaharlal Nehru (right) hugging Indonesia Sukarno after the latter’s arrival in Delhi in 1950; (In colour) Narendra Modi (right) hugging Prabowo Subianto at Hyderabad House on January 25, 2025. (Wikimedia Commons & Express Photo by Praveen Jain) 
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