Then and Now India's Relations with Indonesia

Netaji Institute for Asian Studies, an autonomous social science research institute sponsored by Government of West Bengal in its Higher Education Department, had initiated a project to publish in the form of Occasional Papers/Policy Briefs the outlines of India's relationship with East Asian countries in the context of India's earlier Look East and current Act East Policy. Two studies have already been published: the first in 2017 on India and Malaysia: Historical Hindsight and the Way Ahead by Suranjan Das (KW Publishers, 2017) and the second in 2018 on Indo-Vietnam Relations in the Emerging Global Order, jointly by Suranjan Das, Tridib Chakraborti and Subhadeep Bhattacharya. The present work represents the third publication in this series.

This volume unfolds the trajectory of India-Indonesia bilateralism within a chronological framework. It delineates three crucial phases in this relationship: the 1945-55 era of friendship; the 1956-66 period of tensions; the post-1966 years of strategic companionship. It outlines how the bilateral engagement has gradually assumed an 'ASEAN-centric', 'Asia-centric' and 'global cooperative' strategic character. This transformed relationship has unfolded new opportunities which, if realised, can result in a more productive and constructive bilateralism between India and Indonesia. The book should hopefully be of use to both scholars of international relations as well as practitioners of diplomacy.