A Timely Visit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Indonesia on July 6-8 as part of a three country trip was timely. Indonesia is the largest ASEAN country and is also the largest Muslim state in the world. It should have been natural for India and Indonesia to develop close, cooperative and multifaceted relations. However, that has not been so. As both countries emerged from colonialism in the 1940s there was a period when the leaders of the two countries–Jawaharlal Nehru and Sukarno–were in collaborative contact but the promise of the bilateral relationship was never realised. Indonesian sympathies for Pakistan in the 1965 war and its lukewarm approach towards Indian difficulties in 1971 created a distance between the two countries. On its part, Indonesia strongly resented India’s support to Malaysia when the two states were in conflict. Later, the international priorities of India and Indonesia and differing approaches to domestic challenges, including developmental, led to the two peoples no longer occupying any great space in each other’s consciousness. This was despite many Indians knowing the strong cultural and religious contacts between India and Indonesia in the ancient past. Before the Indonesian people embraced Islam they were Hindu and Buddhist. Large numbers among them continue to be proud of their cultural traditions derived from their interaction with India in olden times. For many Indonesians, the Ramayana in their own version, is an inspirational cultural text. Hence, it was appropriate that during Modi’s visit the two countries decided that India will collaborate with Indonesia in restoring the Prambanan temple compound. It is on UNESCO’s world heritage site list. The 58 paragraph Joint Statement issued at the conclusion of Modi’s visit shows the two countries commitment to comprehensively take their bilateral ties to a higher level in “political engagement, defence and security cooperation, maritime cooperation, trade and investment, digital economy, science and technology, space, critical minerals, energy, agriculture, health, pharma, education, culture, tourism, youth exchanges and people-to-people ties”. This is a very ambitious programme of cooperation and will require the bureaucracies as well as the industrial and business sectors to act purposefully to identify concrete areas where ambitions can be translated into realities. This is never an easy task but can be accomplished if there is will, drive and initiative. Otherwise, large sections of such documents are not translated into action. A principal yardstick to judge the seriousness of engagement between two states is their desire to cooperate in the defense and security sectors. By this criterion India and Indonesia are showing great intent. The Joint Statement notes that the leaders agreed “to further strengthen cooperation and enhance engagements in both traditional and emerging areas of defence cooperation, including regular defence dialogue, joint exercises, staff talks, joint research and co-production of new defence technologies, port calls, peacekeeping activities, information sharing, hydrography, capacity building, cadet training and exchanges, and defence industrial cooperation. They welcomed the elevation of defence cooperation, including through cooperation on BrahMos Missile System, and the Air-to-Air Missile Cooperation Agreement”. As maritime neighbours Indonesia is a country consisting of islands, large and small. It is natural that the two countries should have a great interest in cooperation in the maritime domain. It is important for them to ensure that the Indo-Pacific region remains one of peace and stability. Hence, naval cooperation is a significant area for them. However, it is clear that they wish to venture into other defence sectors too. These include defence industrial production. As defence industries are mostly present in the advanced countries India and Indonesia will have to make special efforts to embark on joint defence industries. Their success in this field, if it occurs, will enthuse the Global South. The proposed cooperation in BrahMos missile systems and in Air-to-Air Missile cooperation deserves a special word. When asked about prospects of cooperation in BrahMos systems Secretary East Rudrendra Tandon rightly said in his media briefing after Modi’s discussions with President Prabowo Subianto, “It is an important part of the industry-to-industry collaboration that the two leaders are trying to develop, taking our defense cooperation relationship to the next level. However, you know, commercial agreements are not really discussed at the highest level. Those are left for the companies to sort out, but I can tell you that it is an important area of collaboration and there were extensive discussions on that”. It can only be hoped that company to company negotiations reach a positive conclusion. Modi and Subianto naturally discussed the situation in the Indo-Pacific region and the Iran war. On the latter there was an obvious meeting of minds. This is important. Just as a great deal of maritime traffic goes through the Strait of Hormuz so it does through the Malacca Strait; Indonesia is one of the principal littoral states along this Strait. The Joint Statement notes, “They also share the same view to respect freedom of navigation and global flow of commerce and the implementation of transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz, in accordance with international law including the provisions of UNCLOS”. If Indonesia wished to act in a manner in which Iran is doing regarding the Strait of Hormuz it would never have agreed to such a formulation. A last point: Clearly, Indonesia, like other Indo-Pacific countries, does not wish to offend China. Hence, there is nothing in the Joint Statement on freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. There is an anodyne formulation regarding adherence to the laws of the seas but this would not offend China. This is how countries send signals through the words used in Joint Statements.
