There’s something to be said about coincidences, and this is not about an Indonesian president gracing India’s first Republic Day Parade in 1950 and again in 2025. This is about four months separating Narendra Modi being sworn in for his third term as prime minister (June 2024) followed by Prabowo Subianto in Oct the same year.
As Modi noted, it gives both leaders time to focus on the relationship, explore nuances and expand its breadth. By that token, although no high profile deals were signed during President Prabowo’s visit to Delhi, take a look at the MoUs exchanged:
These covered defence, maritime and cyber security, counter-terrorism, de-radicalisation and the digital dimension.
“To strengthen our cooperation in the defence sector, we have decided to work together in the areas of defence manufacturing and supply chain,” Modi said at a joint media briefing on Saturday. “The agreement signed on maritime safety and security will strengthen our cooperation in the areas of crime prevention, search and rescue and capacity building.”
Those looking for some table thumping statements about China may have been disappointed. Also those hoping for more daylight on reports about Indonesia buying India’s Brahmos missile.
But there was a reference to freedom of navigation “in accordance with international laws”, a carefully calibrated reference to China’s muscle flexing in the South China Sea that has raised tensions in the region.
President Prabowo, in his address, slipped in that a high level defence delegation from his country would be sent to India. He then focused on the economic dimension of his visit.
“We discussed many key sectors of common interest in which we would like to accelerate the level of cooperation, of course in the economic field this is important and I have given direction to my team to expedite, to cut bureaucracy, over-regulation,” he said adding that … “we need to accelerate and increase economic partnerships with India, if necessary we will prioritise this relationship in the interest of long term strategic partnership which we have agreed upon.”
President Prabowo is looking forward to Indian investment at a time when he said, “We are opening our economy to investment in infrastructure and we invite Indian groups to take part.”
Both sides plan to work together in the areas of Critical Minerals, Science & Tech and STEM Education. Space is expected to see a boost after India transferred to Indonesia, in March last year, ISRO’s telemetry, tracking and command facility for satellites and launch vehicles.
