Then and Now India's Relations with Indonesia, Paperback/Suranjan Das

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.