PM in Indonesia LIVE: Modi conferred with Indonesia's highest honour ’Bintang Adipurna of the Republic of Indonesia’ medal
The Prime Minister began a three-nation diplomatic tour with a visit to Indonesia, marked by a high-protocol ceremonial welcome that included an escort by Indonesian Air Force fighter jets.
Indonesia's President conferred the Bintang Adipurna — Indonesia's highest civilian and military honour — on the Prime Minister ahead of a joint press statement in Jakarta.
The Prime Minister became only the second Indian Prime Minister to receive the honour, after Jawaharlal Nehru, who was conferred the award in 1995.
The visit forms the opening leg of a wider Indo-Pacific tour and is being read as a marker of the priority India places on its relationship with Indonesia within its Act East framework.
Diplomatic Visit Protocol: State, Official, and Working Visits
Bilateral visits at the head-of-state or head-of-government level are formally classified into three protocol tiers: state visits, official visits, and working visits. A state visit is the highest tier — it involves the host head of state personally receiving the visiting dignitary, full ceremonial honours (guard of honour, gun salute, military escort), a state banquet, and typically the largest volume of substantive agreements. An official visit retains some formal elements but drops full ceremonial trappings, while a working visit is stripped down to a bilateral meeting and a short readout, usually confined to the capital.
Key Details
- The tier of a visit signals the political weight both governments attach to the relationship — it is decided in advance through diplomatic channels, not improvised.
- Ceremonial markers such as a fighter-jet escort for the VVIP aircraft and a guard-of-honour reception are typically reserved for state-level visits.
- India extends similar graded protocol to visiting dignitaries — Rajghat wreath-laying and a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan mark the highest tier for incoming state visits.
The scale of the welcome extended to the Prime Minister in Jakarta — fighter escort, conferment of the nation's highest honour, joint press statement — reflects a state-visit-tier engagement, signalling that Indonesia treats the relationship as a top-tier bilateral priority rather than a routine diplomatic stop.
Foreign State Honours as an Instrument of Diplomacy
Nations confer their highest civilian or military honours on visiting foreign leaders as a form of soft-power signalling — recognising a leader's personal contribution to bilateral ties rather than conferring a decoration on the state itself. The Bintang Adipurna, first instituted in 1959, is Indonesia's highest such honour, awarded for exceptional service to the unity, continuity, and prosperity of Indonesia; it has been given to very few foreign heads of government or state.
Key Details
- The honour was last conferred on an Indian Prime Minister in 1995 (Jawaharlal Nehru), making this only the second instance for an Indian leader.
- India's own equivalent framework — Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri — similarly recognises both Indian citizens and, on occasion, foreign nationals for services to India.
- Under Indian Foreign Service protocol, the acceptance of foreign state honours by constitutional functionaries follows established government clearance procedures.
The conferment of the Bintang Adipurna functioned as a ceremonial capstone to the visit, reinforcing the diplomatic signal sent by the state-visit-tier protocol and underscoring the historical depth of India-Indonesia ties reaching back to the Nehru era.
India's Act East Policy and Indonesia's Place in It
India's Act East Policy, articulated at the East Asia Summit in November 2014, upgraded the earlier Look East Policy (1991) from a trade-focused engagement to an active strategic partnership with ASEAN and the wider Indo-Pacific. Indonesia — ASEAN's largest member by population and economy — is treated as a priority partner under this framework, given its geographic position straddling the Indian and Pacific Oceans and its control over key straits linking the two.
Key Details
- India and Indonesia elevated their relationship to a Strategic Partnership in 2005 and further to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2018.
- ASEAN and India upgraded their overall dialogue relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in November 2022, at the 19th ASEAN-India Summit.
- Indonesia's centrality to ASEAN gives it outsized influence over the bloc's collective positions on Indo-Pacific security architecture.
Choosing Indonesia as the opening leg of a multi-nation Indo-Pacific tour, and matching it with the highest ceremonial protocol, signals that India views the Jakarta relationship as the anchor of its Act East engagement in maritime Southeast Asia.
- Bintang Adipurna instituted: 1959; Indonesia's highest civilian and military honour.
- First Indian Prime Minister to receive it: Jawaharlal Nehru, 1995.
- Second Indian Prime Minister to receive it: the incumbent Prime Minister, conferred 7 July 2026.
- Visit dates: three-day visit to Indonesia beginning 6 July 2026, as the opening leg of a three-nation tour.
- India-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership established: May 2018.
- ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership established: November 2022 (19th ASEAN-India Summit).