Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono just concluded a landmark visit to India, where he was the guest of honor at India's 62nd Republic Day celebrations on Jan. 26. Ties between the two countries stretch back to India's first Republic Day celebration in 1950, when Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, was also the guest of honor.
India had previously given unstinting support to Indonesia's struggle for independence from the Dutch, convening a special U.N. conference on the subject in New Delhi in 1949 to further mobilize support. The two countries went on to become leading members of the Nonaligned Movement, founded in 1961.
India's relationship with the erstwhile Soviet Union and Indonesia's pro-American tilt subsequently led the two countries to drift away from each other. But the end of the Cold War and the launch of India's "Look East" policy in the early 1990s led to a thaw in fraught bilateral relations. The Look East policy aimed at renewing India's ties to Southeast and East Asia, where India had failed to build on its historical and cultural links after its independence in 1947.