India seeks to strengthen and redefine relations with Indonesia
India seeks to strengthen and redefine relations with Indonesia
WRITTEN BY NIRANJAN MARJANI
15 February 2021
Defence ties between two of the Indo-Pacific’s largest democracies continue to grow, despite the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 21 January, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held, by phone, a conversation with his Indonesian counterpart General Prabowo Subianto. After the meeting, Singh promptly tweeted that, “We had fruitful and substantive discussions on bilateral defence engagements" adding, "India is committed to enhancing the defence engagements with Indonesia as part of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.
Ten days earlier on 11 January, Indonesia’s outgoing ambassador to India, Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, while speaking at the Ananta Aspen Centre, announced that India and Indonesia would, for the first time, hold joint drills between their respective air forces.
Speaking at Aspen, Suryodipuro said:
“In terms of military cooperation, we have strengthened from coordinated patrol in the Andaman Sea, that has been going on at least for the past 17 years. We have army-to-army exercises, navy-to-navy, and soon we will start air force to air force”.
The addition of air force exercises adds to increasing signs of sustained patterns of security cooperation between New Delhi and Jakarta. Both countries upgraded their relations following the signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) in 2018 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Indonesia.
The deepening relationship
Ambitions on trade are higher still. India and Indonesia are currently negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) to increase their bilateral trade to $50 billion. This has assumed greater importance owing to two recent developments. First was India’s ban on imports of Malaysian palm after the then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticised India over Jammu and Kashmir. The second is India’s refusal to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and so the importance of CECA with Indonesia becomes clearer.
Bilateral defence cooperation between New Delhi and Jakarta, however, remains the key pillar in the relationship. Both countries have engaged at multiple levels involving joint naval exercises, engagement in multilateral forums and procurement deals. The joint drills include the Garuda Shakti exercise, a counterterrorism and counter-insurgency exercise. In the maritime domain, the two countries adopted the 'Shared Vision on Maritime Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific' as a part of the CSP in 2018. India and Indonesia also signed an MOU on Maritime Security Cooperation between the Badan Keamanan Laut and Indian Coast Guard for training, coordinated patrols, capacity building and joint exercises. In multilateral forums, India and Indonesia, alongside the India-ASEAN Summit, engage regularly through the Indian Ocean Rim Association and India-Australia-Indonesia Trilateral Senior Officials’ Dialogue. India may soon export BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to Indonesia, a significant material expansion in defence cooperation.
India-Indonesia military exercises
Jakarta is, owing to proximity and shared interests, a key maritime security actor for India. Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province lies just 80 nautical miles from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This has seen both countries hold joint exercises between their armies and navies, known as Garuda Shakti and Samudra Shakti, respectively. The latest edition of the army exercise was held in 2018 while the naval exercise was held in 2019.
The army exercise, Garuda Shakti, was held in Bandung, Indonesia from 19 February to 4 March 2018, between the special forces of India and Indonesia. This exercise included experience sharing in counter-terrorism operations, close-quarter combat, and other areas of special operations. The naval exercise, Samudra Shakti, was held off the coast of Vishakhapatnam, India from 6 to 7 November 2019 between INS Kamorta, an Indian anti-submarine warfare corvette and Indonesian warship KRI Usman Harun, a multi-role corvette. The exercise included surface warfare manoeuvres, air defence exercises, weapon firing drills, helicopter and boarding operations.
Alongside these exercises, since 2002, the navies of both countries have been conducting the India-Indonesia Coordinated Patrol (IND-INDO CORPAT) along the maritime boundary. The latest edition of this coordinated patrol was held on 17 December 2020, along the International Maritime Boundary Line of the two countries. INS Kulish, an indigenously built Indian missile corvette along with P8I Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) undertook a coordinated patrol with Indonesia’s KRI Cut Nyak Din, a Kapitan Pattimura (Parchim I) class corvette and an MPA of the Indonesian Navy. This coordinated patrol has a strategic role in India's foreign policy, forming part of the Modi government's SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) vision. The engagements under SAGAR include coordinated patrols, EEZ Surveillance, Passage Exercises, and bilateral and multilateral exercises with the countries in the Indian Ocean Region. For Indonesia, the patrol is a means to ensure the safety of shipping and international trade through a vital regional chokepoint.
The China factor
Developing closer military ties with Indonesia has become increasingly a priority for India, amid increasing pressure from Beijing in the Himalayas and across South Asia. China’s assertive activities in the South China Sea pose a threat to the free passage of commercial traffic through the Malacca Strait and, in this, Jakarta and New Delhi have joint concerns.
Contrary to popular opinion, Indonesia is not an official claimant state in the South China Sea, nonetheless, Beijing lays overlapping claims over Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the coast of the Natuna Islands, south of the disputed waters. Over the past decade, China's claims of sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands and the militarization of islands in the South China Sea has seen Chinese fishing boats and coastguard increasingly clash with Indonesian fisherman in the Natuna Sea. India likewise has a stake in China's increasing assertiveness in Southeast Asia, principally due to the proximity of the strategic Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the South China Sea.
Just last month, a Chinese survey ship, the Xiang Yang Hong 03, was caught mapping the seabed in the eastern Indian Ocean, near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. A week earlier this same ship was operating in the Indonesian territorial waters while running dark. The mapping of seabeds provides data crucial to submarine warfare. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ occupy a strategic location in the Bay of Bengal and command the approaches to the Duncan Passage, 10 Degree Channel, Sombrero Channel and Six Degree Channel that connect the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea through the Malacca Strait. These islands, owing to their proximity to the strait, also hosts a tri-services military command. China’s growing military presence in waters on either side of the Malacca Strait poses security challenges to the integrity of both India and Indonesia’s territorial waters, thus mandating the need for greater cooperation between these two maritime neighbours.
For its part, India is involved in the development of the Indonesian port of Sabang. This project, known as the Sabang Initiative may, in future, provide India with a logistics hub overlooking the South China Sea, as well as improve connectivity between Aceh and Andaman and promote tourism in the Andaman Sea. Initially, there was a misconception in India as to whether Sabang would be made available by Jakarta for port calls by the Indian Navy. This was formed when then Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan said in 2018:
“India and Indonesia have started naval drills in 2017, but we can explore doing more between our coast guards. This will become even better the Sabang seaport is established with India. Sabang has a depth of 40 metres which is good even for submarines”.
However, in recent statements, Indonesia reiterated that the purpose of inviting India was to develop Sabang as a tourist spot to attract international investment, so, for now, the security option remains closed. For India, connectivity remains a priority in developing the Sabang Port. New Delhi is also hoping for the economic development of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands through connectivity with the Aceh and Sumatra provinces of Indonesia. In 2018, the first India-Indonesia Business Forum (IIBF) was held in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as a step towards facilitating commercial ties and people to people contact between the two countries. India and Indonesia have agreed to jointly develop eco-tourism and establish connectivity through cruise and commercial flights between Port Blair and Indonesia.
Regardless of future developments, India needs to fast track the development of the Sabang port as it forms a key part of New Delhi’s Double Fish Hook Strategy in the Indian Ocean. Under this strategy, India plans to counter China’s influence in South and Southeast Asia, through increased infrastructure spending and defence cooperation. The double fishhook implies a specific focus on the eastern and western sectors of the Indian Ocean, whereby New Delhi looks to anchor its influence through access to ports with key states like Australia via the Coco Islands, Indonesia (Sabang), Mauritius, Seychelles, the US base at Diego Garcia, France (Reunion Island) and Oman via the strategic Duqm Port.
A shared future
Owing to a focus on continental South Asia, Indonesia has long remained a neglected entity in India’s regional foreign policy. However, as the geopolitical realities of the Indo-Pacific region continue to change in the face of a rising and assertive China, India and Indonesia are looking to coordinate their security policies and increase trade. New Delhi’s attempts to accelerate its outreach to Southeast Asia through the Act East Policy, has received a positive response from Jakarta as is evident in growing strategic ties between them.
In this, there are shared interests. India needs closer strategic relations with Indonesia due to the latter’s proximity to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as to the sea lanes of communications inbound to the South China Sea. For Indonesia, India represents an important regional security actor with a large, experienced military capable of projecting force in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi and Jakarta must now move forward and diversify their relations beyond military ties as there is significant scope for economic cooperation amid increased tensions between the region’s great powers.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Niranjan Marjani is an independent journalist and researcher based in Vadodara. His areas of interest are India’s foreign policy, international relations and geopolitics. He writes articles for various national and international publications. His articles mostly focus on the strategic angle of international politics. Image credit: Wikipedia