New Delhi: India has raised with Jakarta the issue of the upcoming visit of the Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to Islamabad from Delhi. The Indonesian President has been invited as a chief guest at India's Republic Day Parade on 26 January.
According to Pakistani media reports, the Indonesian President will travel to Pakistan on 26th itself, essentially the day when he will be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade at Kartavya path in New Delhi. 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.
But the optics of his combined trips to India and Pakistan is something that the Indian government will not be keen on, as it is known that Delhi has been pushing for dehyphenation for decades now. Ties between the two neighbours are not in a positive trajectory due to Pakistan's support to cross-border terrorism.
As per unwritten protocol, India has told foreign delegations not to travel to India from Pakistan, or from India to Pakistan.
The policy of dehyphenation began gaining prominence during the second term of the George W Bush administration in the US. It was aimed at separating US foreign policy towards India from its policy towards Pakistan, recognising 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 and Pakistan seperately in the same month.
The Indian 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 a close relationship with Indonesia in the maritime and political domains as well as culturally and historically.
The president's visit comes even as India is celebrating 10 years of the Act East Policy.
Under it, leaders from ASEAN countries, including Vietnam and Malaysia, have travelled to India last year.
Also, Indian President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to South East Asian countries as part of this broader outreach.