Watch: PM Modi escorted by fighter jets in Indonesia, welcomed by president Subianto at airport
A high-level state visit to Indonesia — the first leg of a three-nation tour — saw India and Indonesia agree to elevate their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to a higher level, building on the bilateral framework established in 2018.
Discussions centred on defence and maritime cooperation (including a second BrahMos missile battery acquisition worth ~$300 million), critical minerals (particularly Indonesian nickel for India's energy transition supply chains), and digital economy and pharmaceuticals cooperation.
Indonesia is negotiating the purchase of an additional BrahMos battery after finalising a first deal in March 2026, making it the second export customer for BrahMos after the Philippines.
Both nations agreed to designate 2026–2027 as the Tagore-Dewantara Year, marking the centenary of Rabindranath Tagore's 1927 visit to Indonesia.
Act East Policy: From "Look" to "Act"
India's Act East Policy, announced in November 2014, is the successor to the Look East Policy that began in 1991. The transition from "Look" to "Act" signalled a shift from passive engagement to proactive economic, diplomatic, and strategic partnerships with Southeast and East Asian nations.
Key Details
- Core framework: 4Cs — Culture, Commerce, Connectivity, Capacity Building.
- ASEAN remains the central pillar; the policy extends outward to East Asia (Japan, South Korea, Australia) and the Pacific.
- Key infrastructure projects under this framework include the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Mekong-India Economic Corridor.
- India is a member of the ASEAN-led ADMM+, EAS (East Asia Summit), and ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum).
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic nation and Southeast Asia's biggest economy, is a lynchpin of Act East Policy implementation. The visit reinforces India's sustained, multi-domain engagement with ASEAN's largest member.
Indo-Pacific Strategy and QUAD
The Indo-Pacific as a strategic concept frames the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean as a single, interconnected theatre of geopolitical and economic significance. India's engagement in this space is driven by the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) principle — ensuring freedom of navigation, rules-based order, and deterrence of unilateral maritime assertiveness.
Key Details
- The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) — comprising India, the United States, Japan, and Australia — is the primary minilateral grouping expressing this strategy. Re-energised in 2021, QUAD coordinates on maritime security, critical technologies, and supply chains.
- Indonesia's location astride the Malacca Strait and Lombok Strait — two of the world's most critical maritime chokepoints — gives it outsized strategic importance in the Indo-Pacific.
- The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), endorsed in 2019, is ASEAN's own framing of Indo-Pacific cooperation; India's Act East Policy explicitly aligns with AOIP.
Defence cooperation, particularly the BrahMos deal, serves both bilateral deterrence goals and the broader objective of building capable maritime partners across the Indo-Pacific — directly consistent with QUAD's supply-chain and maritime-security agenda.
BrahMos Missile: India's Defence Export Flagship
BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India's DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya under a joint venture established in 1998. The name derives from the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers.
Key Details
- Speed: up to Mach 3 (approximately 3,700 km/h) — one of the fastest anti-ship cruise missiles in operational service.
- Range: up to 450 km (extended range variants); original INF-Treaty-compliant range was ~290 km.
- Variants: air-launched (Su-30MKI), ship-launched, submarine-launched, and land-based.
- The Philippines was the first export customer (deal signed 2022); Indonesia is the second.
- A BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) with reduced size and air-launch versatility is under development.
Indonesia's decision to expand its BrahMos acquisition validates India's positioning as a credible defence exporter and demonstrates that the Defence Exports Target (₹50,000 crore by 2028–29) is being backed by real sovereign demand.
Critical Minerals and Energy Transition
Critical minerals are materials essential for clean energy technologies (EV batteries, solar panels, wind turbines) and advanced electronics. Indonesia holds the world's largest nickel reserves — a key input for lithium-ion battery cathodes.
Key Details
- India's Critical Minerals Mission (launched 2023) identifies 30 critical minerals, including nickel, cobalt, lithium, and rare earths, as strategic priorities.
- Indonesia's ban on raw nickel ore exports (enforced since 2020) has driven foreign investment into domestic processing facilities — exactly the joint-venture model India is now seeking.
- India's energy transition goals (500 GW renewable capacity by 2030) require large-scale battery storage, creating structural long-term demand for nickel and lithium.
Securing Indonesian nickel through joint ventures directly addresses India's critical-mineral vulnerability — a supply-chain risk that intersects GS3 (energy) and GS2 (foreign policy) in UPSC Mains.
- India-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership established: 2018
- Indonesia: world's largest archipelagic state; 4th most populous country (~280 million)
- Indonesia holds the world's largest nickel reserves
- BrahMos established: 1998 (DRDO + NPO Mashinostroyeniya JV)
- BrahMos speed: up to Mach 3; range up to 450 km
- First BrahMos export customer: Philippines (2022); second: Indonesia (2026)
- Act East Policy launched: November 2014 (upgrade from Look East Policy, 1991)
- QUAD members: India, USA, Japan, Australia
- Indonesia controls the Malacca Strait and Lombok Strait — critical maritime chokepoints
- Tagore visited Indonesia: 1927 (centenary marked 2026–2027)