India-Indonesia: Towards Strategic Convergence
President Yudhoyono’s visit is likely to take the strategic partnership to the next level.
- Pankaj K Jha |
- January 24, 2011 |
- IDSA Comments
President Yudhoyono’s visit is likely to take the strategic partnership to the next level.
How India and Indonesia look at each other, the region and the world at large will determine the course of their relationship in coming years.
Like in the space arena, India has the capability to offer its expertise to other countries in the field of nuclear power and non-nuclear applications.
Gates has steered Japan and South Korea towards aligning their shared threat perceptions about North Korea and China.
By concentrating only on the inequities of the blasphemy law, Pakistani ‘moderates’ and commentators elsewhere are missing the point that the real battle is against radical Islamic thought.
A shift in strategic thinking over the past two decades has now led to India being poised between the strategic doctrines of offensive and defensive realism.
North Korea’s offer of a dialogue is unlikely to elicit a positive response from South Korea which instead is militarily drawing closer to Japan to enhance deterrence.
After Lisbon, the next step for NATO and Russia should be addressing issues relating to deployments of arsenals and arms control.
Given the strategic importance of Sudan, it will be in India’s interest to push for a fair and just referendum and influence both the North and the South to respect the outcome of the vote.
The peace process was deadlocked, with extreme polarization within and among the political parties on various issues.