As Indonesia goes to polls on February 14, India’s Ambassador to Indonesia Sandeep Chakravorty has underlined strong democracy connect between the two countries and hoped that there will be a new energy and a new momentum in the bilateral relationship after the formation of the new government in Jakarta.
“Elections are a point of departure in a sense that before elections people say that let the elections happen and then after the elections there is always new energy and new zeal. People want to work with the new leadership and in this case there will be a new leadership irrespective of who wins this election,” said Mr Chakravorty at an online conference on “Indonesian elections: What it means for India-Indonesia relations, the region and the world.” The conference was organised by Centre for Global India Insights, an Indian think tank focused on global affairs and India Writes Network. The conference was hosted in partnership with Indonesia Economic Forum and India-Indonesia Business Forum.
“The three leading presidential candidates have mentioned India several times in their campaign,” said the Indian envoy. “Some of them would like to bring success stories from India into Indonesia. Similarly, there are things that we can learn from Indonesia, and our endeavour will be to see if we can succeed in taking them to Indonesia,” he said. The envoy struck an upbeat note on the future trajectory of India-Indonesia relations after the elections. “I believe that after the elections, there will be a new energy and new momentum in the relationship.
The envoy, however, took a sanguine view when asked about potential India-China competition in Indonesia. “I don’t think international relations and diplomacy are a zero-sum game. Indonesia’s relations with China and India’s relationship with Indonesia are different. I don’t think that if Indonesia is getting closer to China it means that you know we cannot develop our relations with Indonesia.”
The envoy underlined robust democracy connect between India and Indonesia. “India and Indonesia perhaps are the only two countries in the world where democracy has taken root and in a democratic framework these two countries are trying to become developed countries,” said Mr Chakravorty. “There are a lot of similarities between not only the foreign policies of India and Indonesia, but also domestic policies and economic policies,” he said.
(Juhi Sharma contributed inputs for this article)
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