Indonesian President’s visit to India as the Chief Guest of the Republic Day celebrations this year has set the stage for the next round of robust growth of Indonesia-India trade flows. Indonesian and Indian officials have signed 18 Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU) which aims to double the bilateral trade by 2015. Indonesia is already the third largest trading partner of India in South East Asia and the current bilateral trade as of 2010 is USD 11 billion.

The investments that are planned are big ticket items in aiprort and rail infrastructure, coal mining, steel plant. The long term sustainability of these projects and resulting benefits to Indonesian economy will depend on how these projects are implemented. These could very well be the defining moments of building new economic relationships reviving the ancient cultural and cultural and trade ties ties with Indonesia.