Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto arrived in India on Thursday (January 23, 2025) ahead of the 76th Republic Day celebrations to be held in Delhi on Sunday, where he will be the chief guest. This is Mr Subianto’s first visit to India. He is the fourth Indonesian President to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations. In a special gesture, an unexpected 352-member marching and band contingent from Indonesia will take part in the parade. Mr Subianto will be welcomed at Hyderabad House on Saturday, where he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead separate ceremonies during the official-level talks. The two sides will sign several MoUs during the meeting at Hyderabad House, sources said. Mr Subianto will attend the “At Home” meeting hosted by President Draupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar will also meet the guest. Official engagements for Mr Subianto will begin on Friday, when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visits him.
Old allies
India was the first major country to recognise Indonesia, and modern Delhi led a global campaign for the acceptance of Indonesia’s independence globally in the late 1940s.
The relationship got an initial boost when President Sukarno was invited as the chief guest to the first Republic Day celebrations after the formation of modern India on January 26, 1950.
Over the past decades, Indonesia has emerged as an important pillar of India’s Act East arrangement and there have been traditional talks between officials and military task forces of both sides. Indonesia is one of India’s largest trading partners in the ASEAN region, with bilateral trade set to reach $29.4 billion in 2023-24. Mr Modi visited Indonesia in 2018, when the relationship was elevated to the level of a major strategic organisation, and both sides adopted a shared vision of an India-Indonesia maritime partnership in the Indo-Pacific region.
The same year India and Indonesia signed the Deterrence Partnership Agreement, which has boosted deterrence ties and led to staff-level talks between the two sides’ patrol forces, naval forces and armed forces.
Indonesia is home to one of the oldest Indian expatriate communities in the ASEAN region and the two sides are old social partners. According to sources, Mr Prabowo’s visit will provide an opportunity to assess cooperation in areas such as security, safety, trade and investment, healthcare, advanced development, energy, culture networks, tourism and people-to-people ties. The third India-Indonesia CEO meeting will be held during the President’s visit.
Indonesia is one of India’s oldest flying partners from the South-East Asian region and coordinated flight networks between the two sides began soon after mutual relations began in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Indians are also one of the biggest tourists visiting Indonesian destinations such as Bali.
