Tuesday, February 18th, 2025

Indonesian President may abandon plan to visit Pakistan right after Republic Day celebrations, India had expressed objection

New Delhi: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is unlikely to visit Pakistan directly after attending India’s Republic Day celebrations. India has made diplomatic efforts to convince Indonesia not to link its visit to India with its proposed visit to Islamabad. India had invited Subianto as the chief guest for the Republic Day parade last year, but a formal announcement about his/her visit is yet to be made. Amid India’s delay in announcing the name of the chief guest for the January 26 ceremony, reports emerged in Pakistani media this week that Subianto would arrive in Islamabad on the same day for a three-day visit.India not happy with Indonesian President’s visit to Pakistan
Our colleague TOI was the first to report on Friday that the Indian government has taken up the issue diplomatically with Indonesia. Because India found the President’s plan to go directly to Islamabad after being honored by India unacceptable. Republic Day is a special occasion and the Indian government has for years been urging foreign leaders not to combine their visits to India with those to Pakistan, even for bilateral visits. India believes that this goes against the separation that India seeks in its relations with both countries.

No official statement has come yet
Government sources said the Indonesian President will not travel to Pakistan from India. There were reports on Saturday that he/she may go to Malaysia from India late on the night of 26 January. But there has been no official confirmation of this. There has been no official statement from Jakarta yet on Subianto’s travel itinerary.

It is not clear whether the President, if he/she indeed travels to Malaysia, will fly in the opposite direction again to Islamabad or postpone his/her Pakistan visit plans for now. Last week, Pakistani ministers were quoted as saying that the historic visit would enable Indonesia and Pakistan to take steps to strengthen their economic ties.

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