Transcript of special briefing by Secretary (East) on the State visit of President of Indonesia to India (January 25, 2025)
India - Ministry of External Affairs
January 25, 2025
Shri. Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good evening, friends. Thank you for coming here to attend the special briefing on the ongoing state visit of the President of Indonesia. We have with us Secretary (East) Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar to brief you on the developments of the ongoing state visit of President of Indonesia. We also have with us Shri. Ashish Sinha, Joint Secretary who looks after South countries in Southeast Asia. With that I invite Secretary Sir to make his opening remarks, after which we will take questions from your side. Sir, the floor is yours.
Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): Thank you Randhir, and a very good afternoon to all of you. As you are aware at the invitation of Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi, the President of Indonesia His Excellency Prabowo Subianto is paying a state visit to India, a four-day state visit. He arrived on the 23rd and he will be departing later tomorrow after attending the Republic Day Parade.
The visit has its own special significance. As you might have heard, the first Republic Day of India was graced by the then President of Indonesia, His Excellency President Sukarno. And it is now after 75 years, this is the 76th Republic Day, when we again have another Indonesian President as our Chief Guest. In between we have had two other Indonesian Presidents as Chief Guests for Republic Day. So that will give you an idea of the enduring relationship that we have with this very important country in the Indo-Pacific.
The President is accompanied by a high-powered delegation of six cabinet ministers, senior officials and a very large business delegation which has accompanied him. I will talk more about that. This is the President's maiden state visit to India, and he has visited India before as the Defense Minister in 2020. He has met our Prime Minister in Brazil on the margins of G20 in November this year, and they have also spoken on the phone on a couple of occasions.
The President had congratulated Prime Minister Shri. Modi on his election victory. The President himself took office in October. And so, we are very fortunate that very early on in his tenure he is visiting India. In fact, the Prime Minister also remarked that it is a very good sign that both at the start of the Prime Minister's third tenure and at the beginning of the President's tenure, we are having this visit. So, it will give them both the chance to have an extended period through which to work on the relationship.
As you know, India and Indonesia have a relationship that goes back through millennia. You have all heard of the Bali Yatra, and not only from India, from the Orissa coast to Bali, but all over to Sumatra and Borneo, Indian seafarers have been travelling, carrying trade as well as culture between us and Indonesia. We share a common heritage of Mahabharata and Ramayana which brings us close together. And this year we had for the first time an international presence at the Bali Yatra Utsav in Cuttack when we had representatives from 14 countries, mostly from Southeast Asian countries who participated, and a cultural troupe had also come from Bali to do a Balinese dance. So, this age-old relationship that we have, we are now in the process of modernizing and giving it very substantive content in many areas which I will come to.
But just to carry on with the program, the President arrived in New Delhi on the 23rd evening where he was warmly received by Minister of State in the External Affairs Ministry, Shri. Pabitra Margherita, who is the Minister in attendance. And the External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar, called on the President yesterday. Today was the main day of bilateral engagements. In the morning the President was accorded a ceremonial welcome in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan by Rashtrapati Ji and Prime Minister Modi and thereafter the President visited Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
This was followed by extensive bilateral talks, both in restricted format between the Prime Minister and the President, as well as in delegation level talks. They undertook a review of their entire gamut of bilateral relations within the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership which we entered into with Indonesia during the Prime Minister's 2018 visit there. The discussions covered cooperation in areas of defense and security, maritime domain, trade and investment, connectivity, digital economy, tourism, health and people-to-people ties.
The President, as you know, is particularly interested in the social security and social development programs of India. He has replicated the mid-day meal scheme in Indonesia. He is launching that scheme after having sent two teams to study the scheme in India, and he is firmly of the view that the Indian experience is replicable in Indonesia. He said repeatedly that if something works in a country of 1.4 billion people it must be replicable elsewhere. So, he is very keen to learn from our developmental experience and the experience of our social schemes, and that opens up an entire area of cooperation between us.
You will subsequently see a lot of the areas of convergence and discussion that we had in the joint statement which will be issued tomorrow. The two leaders also witnessed the exchange of several bilateral documents, MOUs were exchanged. One on health cooperation between our Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Health of Indonesia.
Indonesia is very keen to not only cooperate at the policy level on health but also the government wants to attract Indian hospitals ... to open hospitals in Indonesia. They would like to have their doctors being trained and exposed to our health system to undergo internships, to send students here, to send practicing doctors here, technicians on equipment, and a whole host of different areas under health was also discussed. The Prime Minister's Janaushadhi Kendras was also discussed, and how this could be something that Indonesia could look at. So, the entire health field is something that has tremendous potential which Indonesia is very keen to replicate from India.
The next MOU was on maritime safety and security between the Indian Coast Guard and BAKAMLA, which is the Indonesian Coast Guard. The third was in the field of traditional medicine quality assurance between the two sides. As you know, Indonesia is strong on traditional medicine and therefore both sides feel that there is a lot to be gained from this cooperation.
There was another MOU in the field of digital development between the Ministry of Electronics and IT of India, and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs of Indonesia.
And finally, a cultural exchange program between the Ministry of Culture of India and the Ministry of Culture of Indonesia. After this there were press statements by the two leaders. You must have seen them, heard them. And then Prime Minister Modi hosted a lunch in honor of President Prabowo.
In parallel, a CEO's forum was also held today morning. The President had brought nearly a hundred businessmen with him in a very large delegation, and he also had interactions with several industry leaders in India. The CEO's forum also presented a report to the two foreign ministers on the way forward that they see in bilateral business cooperation. And the President repeated several times that he wanted to see greater urgency and greater implementation of business-to-business understandings. He said he offered the entire infrastructure sector of Indonesia open to Indian business. He announced that he has opened the infrastructure industry for private sector, and reserved it for the private sector in Indonesia. And that Indians are free to invest in Ports, Airports, Railway Infrastructure and many others.
Later today, Rashtrapati ji will host the President. They will have a meeting in a little while, followed by a banquet that will be hosted in his honor. A little while ago, the Vice President of India, Shri. Jagdeep Dhankhar ji called on President Prabowo and they discussed again a wealth of issues regarding the social sector, and what has been implemented in India in the recent past. Whether it be in gas connections, free gas connections, solar, rooftop solar, sanitation and schemes of the Government of India in this respect. And the President was very, very interested in all of them.
Tomorrow, the President will witness the Republic Day Parade as a chief guest. And one remarkable feature of this Republic Day parade is that a marching contingent in a band from Indonesia will be at the lead of our parade. This is not only the first time that we are having a contingent from Indonesia marching in Republic Day. But for Indonesia, it is the first time ever that a military band and a military contingent has participated in a parade abroad anywhere. So, this is also of particular importance because the President is also a soldier by profession. And he himself has taken great interest in the rehearsals of the army contingent in Jakarta, before they came. And he is therefore extremely happy that this honor has been given to the Indonesian Army.
Indonesia, as I have said, is our Comprehensive Strategic Partner and a very important pillar of our Act-East policy and our vision for the Indo-Pacific. And the visit is a very timely one, a very important one. And very substantive discussions were held in a wide range of areas that I have mentioned. And it will, we believe, certainly chart the way forward in bilateral relations for the next few years.
I will stop now, and I am open to any questions if you have any.
Sidhant Sibal: Hi, Sir. Sidhant from WION. Any conversation on the BrahMos missile deal? This is something that we have heard. Also, secondly, on the Aceh-Andaman connectivity, any updates, sir?
Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Bloomberg: Thank you, Sir. Sir, Sudhi Ranjan from Bloomberg. Sir, associating with Sidhant's question on the BrahMos. Also, could you give us an understanding whether India and Indonesia discussed export of rice? If so, what kind of quantities and what time frame?
Huma Siddiqui, Financial Express: Sir, I just want ... if there were any discussions related to space cooperation, because Indonesia is keen to work in that sector. And, what about the trade, since the trade is a little bit lopsided?
Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary East: So, let me first take this group of questions. On the defense side, as I mentioned, there were very wide-ranging discussions on cooperation in the defense area. Defense industry cooperation is one of the important areas that was mentioned. I won't go into the specifics of what was discussed, but I can tell you that everything from joint exercises to farm greater coordination and collaboration, to greater talks, to greater training exchanges, as well as things like repair maintenance of common platforms, and also repair and maintenance of platforms was discussed. And defense is also, like in the area of health, a very wide area, a very wide canvas, in which both sides saw tremendous potential for future development. And the President, in fact, said that he would be sending a high-power defense delegation to India within the next few weeks. So that's on the defense side.
You also asked about Aceh-Andaman and connectivity. Yes, connectivity between the two countries was something that was discussed. As you know, we now have 21 flights a week between India and Indonesia. We have flights from Bangalore to Bali, from Mumbai to Jakarta, from Delhi to Bali. And we will soon have, I think, a flight from Delhi to Jakarta as well. This is important because both sides emphasize the importance of people-to-people connect. Tourism is an important area. We had, last year, nearly 700,000 Indian tourists visiting Indonesia. It is a very huge jump from what it was a few years ago. And there is potential for increasing that manyfold. So yes, that connectivity is an important area which we discussed.
Sudhi, you mentioned BrahMos and also Rice. Rice specifically was not mentioned. Of course, it has been a subject that has been raised in the past. And we have expressed our readiness to meet their requirements. As and when they have a requirement, we will be happy to help.
Huma mentioned space. Yes, space is another area which we have had a long relationship. We will also be launching a couple of Indonesian satellites with our polar satellite launch vehicle. So yes, that is also another area of cooperation.
Trade. Trade is about $30 billion, which is not insubstantial. It is, of course, very much in favor of the Indonesian side. Their exports are about $24 billion or so. And our exports are only about $6 billion. So, it was emphasized that there is a great deal of potential for Indonesia to buy more from us in many different areas, whether it be pharmaceuticals, whether it be in vehicles, automobiles, et cetera. So, there is a tremendous amount of potential for that.
Shivam Patel, Reuters: Hi, sir. Shivam from Reuters. Prime Minister also mentioned that Indonesia and India are working together on defense manufacturing. Could you give us some specifics on what this defense manufacturing would be? Separately, sir, there's also some reporting that Indonesia has sought spare parts for Sukhoi aircraft. Is that something that was discussed as well? Thank you.
Keshav Padmanabhan, The Print: Sir, this is Keshav Padmanabhan from The Print associating with Shivam's question on defense manufacturing and supply chains. This is something the Prime Minister mentioned in his speech. So, could you give us a sense of what are the next steps forward? What are we looking at in that? And secondly, when it comes to development of infrastructure in Indonesia, was development of Indonesian ports, such as Sabang by Indian companies discussed? Was there any movement on this? Are we looking at more ports? That's what I wanted to ask as my second question. Thank you.
Manish Chand, India Writes Network: Sir, Manish Chand, the India Writes Network. You know, Prime Minister described Indonesia as an important partner in the Indo-Pacific. What kind of collaboration we are looking at? Was there any discussion from the Indonesian side? They had any issues about Quad, and about shaping an inclusive, and open Indo-Pacific? Also, like the last question, you know, what is the status of the Sabang port? Yeah. Thank you.
Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): So, in defense manufacturing, there was no great granularity in terms of the discussion. Like, certainly did not discuss spare parts for Sukhoi. But it was discussed that we have several common platforms. And it would make sense for Indonesia to source some of their requirements for servicing of their platforms from India. It was also discussed that shipbuilding, for example, is something that Indonesia could collaborate with us. They have extensive requirement for their Coast Guard, Navy vessels. So that is something that we could work with them on. So, these were the kind of defense platforms that were discussed. And really, the team that will come from Indonesia will really map out what are the things that they want to do with us in this area.
On the infrastructure, on Sabang port, yes. The President said the Sabang port, like other ports in Indonesia, is an infrastructure area which Indian private sector is welcome to come and invest in.
Manish asked about ... was Quad discussed? Well, the region was discussed. The Indo-Pacific was discussed. The ASEAN and India's relationship with ASEAN and the centrality. You heard Prime Minister say in his press statement that the importance we hold ASEAN in, and the fact that Indonesia is really one of the central pillars of ASEAN that was discussed. And we have a great commonality of views on what we see should be the Indo-Pacific rules-based order, free and open commerce, and shipping, and overflight. So, these were certainly things that were discussed and rules-based order. So, there is complete unanimity on both sides on these aspects.
Ayushi Agarwal, ANI: So this is Ayushi Agarwal from ANI. One question related to the education sector. Was there any discussion on opening up an IIT campus in Indonesia?
Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary East: In fact, the President did say that he is very keen that Indian institutions of higher learning open their campuses in Indonesia. He also said that he would like more and more Indonesian students to come to India. As you know, at the moment, I think there are about a dozen Indonesians who are doing PhD programs under our Indo-ASEAN PhD framework that we had offered. So certainly, education for Indonesia is something that is of great interest to them for cooperation with India. And I'm sorry, I also had to mention medical colleges. The President was also very keen that medical colleges be set up in Indonesia.
Huma Siddiqui, Financial Express: Sir in the health care sector, has Indonesia reached out to India for building up infrastructure and training the doctors? You mentioned in your opening. So, can you please share more about it?
Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary East: We understand that the Indonesian government is in contact with hospital groups in India for setting up tertiary hospitals and specialist hospitals. At least one group that I am aware of is very far advanced in discussions for doing that. And this is an area where the Indonesian government feels that there is a lot that it can gain from our hospital expertise. And as I mentioned, even interning of their doctors in our medical system would be of advantage to them. And Prime Minister offered full support for that.
Manish Chand, India Writes Network: Sir, when we talk about Sabang, is it being developed at the civilian port or a military port? I mean, or is it a dual use port? And when is it going to be operational? Or is it already operational?
Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): No, it is not operational. As you would remember, DPR was done on the Sabang port some years ago. I think that was even before COVID, I think, around 2019 or so. So, no, it has not been developed into a port yet. And there is no talk about developing it into a military port. It was very much supposed to be a civilian port. But we have not progressed on that. We did not discuss specifically developing of that port. But as the President said, it was open for Indian investors if they wish to develop the port.
Ubeer Naqushbandi, Tribune: Sir, this is Ubeer from Tribune. Sir, my question is, was Myanmar discussed between the two countries today?
Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Bloomberg: Sir, just wanted a clarification. In your statement, you said that the President met Indian business leaders. If you could give us an understanding which are these leaders and what kind of discussions, sir.
Shri. Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary East: On the first question, the answer is no. Myanmar was not discussed.
Regarding the businesses, these were really coordinated by the businessmen who had come along with the President. So, it was not something that we had arranged ... these business interactions. So, there were a large number of some of our bigger groups who had called on the President. And they had also had discussions with their counterparts. The Tata group was there. There was, I think, several other groups.
Shri. Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: So, with that, we come to the close of this special briefing. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. And we wish you a happy Republic Day in advance. Thank you.
New Delhi
January 25, 2025
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