Indonesia has significantly stepped up its naval cooperation with India, including joint exercises and port visits by warships, as part of Jakarta’s focus on maritime security in the Indian Ocean, it said. Indonesian Ambassador Ina Krisnamurthi.

While Indonesia is the current G20 chair and India is expected to take office in December, Jakarta and New Delhi are working closely together at the highest level like “never before” to maneuver in an increasingly global scenario. more fluid and dynamic following Ukraine. war, Krisnamurthi said in an exclusive interview.

“For the first time in the history of our bilateral relations, we have a very senior officer – a naval commodore – as defense attaché. It is very clear that it is further strengthened to the point that maybe in a year or two we will have a full-fledged defense attaché here with (officers from) the air force and the army . Now we are strengthening cooperation with the navy first,” she said.

For the first time, India and Indonesia will conduct two joint exercises in 2022, instead of just one wargame, and there have been around six port visits since March. After a trip to Jakarta by India’s national security adviser, Indonesia’s coordination minister will soon visit India, she said.

Krisnamurthi said the issue of enhanced security cooperation with India had been postponed for too long due to Indonesia’s previous focus on the Pacific Ocean. “I think we need to deal more with the Indian Ocean…in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We also organized something with the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) because we want to start thinking more about the Indian Ocean, not just going through Suez [or] Africa…it really needs to be dealt with very seriously because the Indian Ocean is very important to us,” she said.

Amid growing concerns over the fallout from the war in Ukraine affecting consensus within the G20 group, Krisnamurthi said India and Indonesia were working in close coordination for the bloc’s upcoming summit to be held in Bali in november.

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“I said that never before at the highest level have we had such a close relationship on a day-to-day basis because the global dynamic is very fluid. That’s why coordination between senior leaders in countries like ours is very important. to maneuver the dynamic,” she said.

In the context of Indonesia’s invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the G20 summit, the envoy said the presence of the two leaders at the meeting would be a sign of hope for the international community.

“I think what we want is not to be there, but for everyone to sit down and think about what’s going to happen to the world, how to manage the world… To see the leaders sitting down together now it’s also a challenge,” she added. added.

“So if they come and sit with the other leaders, that’s a plus. It is hope, just to give hope that everyone will sit at the same table, thinking about the future of the earth,” Krisnamurthi said, adding that the invitation to the two leaders that the Indonesia and other emerging economies “remain neutral in managing a major framework like the G20, whether we put aside an issue in a certain area or region, and think about the future of the earth.

All key preparatory meetings held before the G20 summit ended without joint statements or consensus outcomes due to differences over the war in Ukraine, although Krisnamurthi said policy implementation is more important than consensus.

“The result of consensus is one thing, but first of all, the continuity of discussions on certain issues is more important than consensus… If you remember (at the) beginning of the (Ukrainian) war, the word boycott has been used by some, (but) it hasn’t happened. It’s a positive way of looking at what happened with our presidency… I think the consensus in the joint communiqués is not as important as the implementation of the policy itself,” she said.