“Time has come to move from promise to practice”: Harsh Vardhan Shringla calls for India and Indonesia to match strategic intent with implementation

Senior policymakers, diplomats and industry leaders gathered in New Delhi for a day-long discussion on the India-Indonesia strategic partnership, organised by leading think tank of India Chintan Research Foundation (CRF) and timed ahead of the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to Jakarta from Monday.

Delivering special remarks, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, MP (RS) and former Foreign Secretary, said the Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to Indonesia marked a milestone that made the discussion timely, and that the relationship was now defined as much by strategic seriousness as by historical warmth. He framed the central question as whether India and Indonesia’s civilisational comfort could be converted into strategic capability.

Placing the partnership in geographic context, he pointed to the Strait of Malacca, through which roughly 22.5 million barrels of oil and around 1,000 vessels pass daily, arguing that this made the relationship one of strategic necessity rather than preference. He cited bilateral trade of approximately US$29.4 billion and India’s roughly US$6 billion in exports to Indonesia, and pointed to Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) cooperation, noting that India recorded some 208 billion digital transactions last year, as ripe for deeper engagement in payments, tourism and mobility.


On defence, he referred to Indonesia’s interest in acquiring the BrahMos missile system as a sign of movement from dialogue toward strategic capability, alongside the Komodo Exercise held earlier this year in the Andaman Sea. He also flagged critical minerals and the green economy as central to Asia’s industrial future, and closed by calling for “habits of implementation” rather than reliance on political statements alone, the shift, in his words, from promise to practice.

Prashant Agrawal, Additional Secretary (South), Ministry of External Affairs, recalled the 1921 Nalanda excavations and India's subsequent gift of inscription replicas to Indonesia's National Museum as evidence of centuries-old ties, and noted that the two countries are separated by just 90 miles at their closest point. He traced the relationship’s modern arc from the Indonesian President’s 1950 visit to India through the 2018 elevation to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. On trade, he noted that Indonesia runs a surplus on the back of coal and palm oil exports, calling for more balanced trade going forward. He highlighted 113 Indian companies investing in Indonesia, particularly in IT, and pointed to shared ground in welfare programmes such as school meal schemes, alongside cooperation on digital public infrastructure, agricultural data systems and digital health. He closed with four priorities for the relationship: building shock-resilient supply chains, sharing developmental experience on food security, deepening defence and maritime cooperation to safeguard freedom of navigation, and strengthening South-South cooperation through Indonesia's continued support for India in ASEAN and BRICS.

Indian Ambassador to Indonesia Sandeep Chakravarty offered a broader framing, observing that both countries prize strategic autonomy and resist rigid blocs, but arguing that the relationship should now move toward strategic cooperation rather than autonomy pursued for its own sake. He discussed Indonesia’s downstreaming policy, under which foreign investment is expected to build domestic capacity and transfer technological know-how rather than simply extract resources, and pointed to Indian investment in Indonesia’s pharmaceutical sector as an example of mutually beneficial cooperation. He noted that much of India’s DPI cooperation with Indonesia operates quietly, through white-label solutions whose Indian origins are not widely visible, and called for flagship strategic assets such as the Great Nicobar Project and Sabang Port to move from discussion to operational cooperation. He concluded that Atmanirbhar Bharat and a self-reliant Indonesia should advance as mutually reinforcing goals.

Through the course of the day, panellists and discussants examined cooperation across Digital Public Infrastructure, including India's payments and open commerce architecture as a reference point for Indonesia’s own digital transformation, maritime and shipping connectivity, education and skills partnerships, and the structure and sophistication of bilateral trade, with discussions converging on a shared diagnosis: that India and Indonesia’s civilisational and geographic proximity has not yet translated into commensurate trade, connectivity or institutional depth.