Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto will be travelling to Malaysia after India visit later this month. President Subianto is the chief guest at India's Republic Day, the 4th time an Indonesian leader will be gracing the occasion since 1950. India extends invites for Republic Day only to countries with which it has strong diplomatic relations, and Indonesia is seen as a close maritime neighbour. India, Indonesia have strong cultural, historic ties, and both Indian PM and Indonesian President Subianto met in November on the sidelines of the G20 Brazil summit. 

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Earlier the Indonesian President was expected to travel to Pakistan from India but the optics of joint India, Pakistan visit is something that Indian govt will not be keen on as it is known that Delhi has been pushing for de-hyphenation for decades now. Ties between the 2 neighbours are not in positive trajectory due to Pakistan's support to cross border terrorism. As per unwritten protocol, India has told foreign delegations not to travel to Pakistan from India.

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The policy of de-hyphenation began gaining prominence during the second term of the George W. Bush administration. It was aimed at separating U.S. foreign policy towards India from its policy towards Pakistan, recognizing India's rising power status and its potential as a strategic partner. In February 2019, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) travelled to India & Pakistan separately in the same month.

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India side has invited the Indonesian President to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade. This is for the third time that an Indonesian leader has been invited after 2018 and 1950, and the visit is part of India's broader outreach to the ASEAN countries. 

India, of course, shares close relationship with Indonesia, both in the maritime domain, political domains and cultural and historical domain. Visit comes even as India is celebrating 10 years of the Act East Policy, and under it, leaders from ASEAN countries, including Vietnamese and Malaysia have travelled to India last year. Also the Indian President Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to South East Asian countries as part of this broader outreach.