WITH Malaysia and India currently at odds, Indonesian President Joko Widodo (better known as Jokowi) is moving quickly. In exchange for securing Indonesian palm oil exports, he is boosting imports of major commodities from India (“Indonesia to prioritise imports of meat, rice, raw sugar from India in exchange for lower CPO tariff”, The Jakarta Post, Sept 19,2019; online at bit.ly/jakarta_india).
A closer India-Indonesia engagement at the expense of India-Malaysia ties is in stark contrast to the situation in the 1960s.