The Hindu : National : New issues, old ties mark Pratibha’s visit to Indonesia, Vietnam

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New issues, old ties mark Pratibha’s visit to Indonesia, Vietnam

Parvathi Menon

Indonesia is India’s third largest trading partner in ASEAN

Pratibha Patil

BANGALORE: Bilateral ties between India and Indonesia and Vietnam — countries that President Pratibha Devi Singh Patel will visit between November 24 and December 3 — are today largely driven and determined by trade and business interests. Independent India’s association with Vietnam and Indonesia, however, was forged in the anti-colonial struggles in south and southeast Asia in the post-World War II years.

India played an important role in helping Indonesian nationalists establish full national sovereignty over what was the former Dutch East Indies during the four years of struggle between August 17, 1945, when Indonesian independence was formally announced, and December 9, 1949, when freedom was finally wrested from the Dutch in an agreement signed between the two parties at The Hague under the auspices of the United Nations. Amongst the first political contacts made by the Indonesian nationalists after 1945 were with the leaders of the Indian National Congress, particularly with Jawaharlal Nehru, who had a personal relationship with Indonesian nationalist leaders like Mohammad Hatta and Soetan Sjahrir.

AIR’s role

All India Radio functioned as the official ‘freedom radio’ of the Indonesian republic in the first years of its existence. India played an important role in the internationalisation of the Indonesian cause, first by giving it prominence at the Inter-Asian Relations Conference sponsored by the provisional government under Nehru in New Delhi in March 1947, and subsequently by bringing the issue before the United Nations later that year.

A young pilot named Biju Patnaik was sent by Nehru in July 1947 to fly Sjahrir to New Delhi as the first stop on a trip to present Indonesia’s case before the Security Council. Nehru issued a strong condemnation of Dutch military action in Indonesia, and threatened a ban on Dutch air traffic through Calcutta. In January 1949, Nehru, on the urging of Prime Minister U Nu of Burma, convened a second conference, this time of independent Asian and African states, to discuss the Indonesian question. Its resolution and the general force of India’s moral authority amongst nations emerging from colonial rule helped galvanise international opinion against The Netherlands, leading finally to the independence of Indonesia.

Today bilateral relations between the two countries have extended to the areas of investment, defence, and culture, with frequent exchanges of high-level visits between the two countries. Indonesia is India’s third largest trading partner in ASEAN, with its trade valued at $6.5 billion in 2007. It has substantial Indian investments, particularly in the textile sector.

During the visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to India in November 2005, a Joint Declaration on the Establishment of a New Strategic Partnership between India and Indonesia was signed, followed in 2007 by an Action Plan between the two countries for its implementation.

With Vietnam, India’s historical ties are as enduring and go back to the anti-colonial upsurges in both countries. President Ho Chi Minh, the legendary Vietnamese revolutionary, established early contacts with leaders of the Indian national movement. Nehru was one of the first visitors to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam after the famous victory by the Viet Minh forces against the French in Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. The protracted war against the U.S. aggression in Vietnam, a war that did more to discredit post-war U.S. military intervention than perhaps any other in the post-World War II period, received huge popular and political support in India, particularly from the Left.

There has been a steady stream of high-level visits between Vietnam and India over the last four decades. Bilateral agreements have been signed in the areas of business and trade, science and technology, agriculture and culture. Trade is the most buoyant sector of Indo-Vietnamese ties. India is the 10th largest exporter to Vietnam, with exports valued at $ 1.3 billion, and total trade valued at $ 1.5 billion in 2007. In fact, Vietnam’s exports to India during January to June 2008 saw an increase of 103.61 per cent over the corresponding period in 2007, according to figures provided by the Ministry of External Affairs.

Commercial diplomacy today, however, is built on the foundation of special historical relationships between both these countries and India.

Corrections and Clarifications

* * The President's name is Pratibha Devisingh Patil and not Devi Singh Patel as in the text of the report "New issues, old ties mark Pratibha's visit to Indonesia, Vietnam" (November 24, 2008).

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