Indian Ambassador to Indonesia Gurjit Singh says that Indonesia and India need to diversify and intensify their approaches to bilateral ties by looking and focusing on new areas of cooperation in order to make the relationship more unique.

His remarks came along with the launch of a new book, entitled Masala Bumbu: Enhancing the India-Indonesia Partnership, which offered new perspectives toward how relations between the two countries could be made more interesting and diversified.

Describing the state of current India-Indonesia relations, Singh explained that Indonesia and India'€™s awareness and relationship was still stuck on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, referring to an Indian film popular in Indonesia more than 20 years ago.

He said that it was time for both countries to think toward how the relationship could be developed to produce better results for the next 10 years to come.

Singh also noted that in some potential areas of cooperation, such as the media, there hasn'€™t been much interaction, if any, between Indonesian and Indian media outlets. The relative inactivity in such areas, he added, showed the importance of setting a clear agenda for cooperation in the next few years.

'€œWe need to look at this century, to 2015 and the next 10 years, on what we can do together. I think the whole relationship needs help, but certainly the economy has always been the main area of focus. But we should not just be bogged down by that. There needs to be new areas of cooperation,'€ Singh said at the book launch at his residence at Taman Suropati, Central Jakarta on Monday.   

The book describes the areas in which both countries can intensify collaboration, such as culture, civil society, corporate social responsibilities (CSR), media, non-traditional trade and partnership in managing the Indian Ocean.

Thirty-four experts of the aforementioned areas contributed their knowledge to this book, with 17 Indonesians and 17 Indians giving their respective points of view on certain topics.

Among the Indonesian contributors of the book were the former editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post, Endy M. Bayuni, former minister and prominent businessman Gita Wirjawan, celebrity chef Farah Quinn, Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia founder Dino Patti Djalal and author Laksmi Pamuntjak.
________________________

'€œWe need to look at this century, to 2015 and the next 10 years, on what we can do together.'€

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President