January 28, 2025
NEW DELHI – President Prabowo Subianto concluded on Monday his two-day state visit to India, during which he held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attended the country’s 76th Republic Day parade as chief guest and toured a legendary bookstore in the Indian capital.
On Sunday, the President was a guest of honor at the annual military and cultural parade to mark 76 years since the country adopted its constitution as a sovereign republic. The event in New Delhi coincided with Prabowo’s state visit, his first since he took office in 2024.
Prabowo was transported by a horse-drawn carriage to the parade grounds, where he accompanied Indian President Droupadi Murmu during the three-hour display of India’s military hardware and diverse cultural performances.
“I am honored that I can repeat history like our first president Soekarno [sic], who was guest of honor for India’s Republic Day,” Prabowo posted to X on Sunday, referring to his predecessor’s attendance in the same role at the inaugural Republic Day parade in 1950, on an invitation from Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Other guests of honor at past parades have included French President Emmanuel Macron, who was last year’s chief guest, as well as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019, United States president Barack Obama in 2015 and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2014.
The parade, held along a revamped colonial-era boulevard that is home to key government buildings, is a colorful and tightly choreographed spectacle that features missile systems, a military flypast, motorcycle stunts and floats representing different Indian states.
A marching contingent from the Indonesian Military took part in this year’s Republic Day parade.
In his remarks on Saturday, Modi noted that Indonesia was the guest nation at India’s first Republic Day celebrations, so its participation this year was a matter of “great pride”.
The two leaders, who called each other “brother”, held bilateral talks earlier that day, followed by a signing ceremony for a series of cooperation agreements on health, maritime security and digital technology.
“To increase cooperation in the defense sector, we have decided we would work together on defense manufacturing and supply chain,” Modi told a joint press conference on Saturday after the signing ceremony.
“We discussed many key sectors of common interest in which we would like to accelerate the level of cooperation,” Prabowo said.
He also thanked India for supporting Indonesia through the process of becoming a BRICS member, of which India is a founding country. Prabowo added that the bloc of emerging economies “will be beneficial for global stability and regional cooperation”.
Last year, India’s arms exports booked US$2.63 billion, an increase of thirtyfold over a decade for the country but a minuscule figure compared to that of established players.
Trade between India and Indonesia reached $29.4 billion in 2024. Indonesia ranked as India’s eighth-largest trading partner last year, while India was the second-largest buyer of Indonesia’s coal and crude palm oil.
India recorded a $1.46 billion trade deficit with Indonesia in October.
At a press briefing on Sunday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishenkar noted the good chemistry between Modi and the Indonesian president.
“Even in the first meeting, they kind of hit it off well. Both of them clearly had free-flowing, easy conversation on a range of issues. It was a very comfortable conversation. The chemistry was good,” he said.
At a dinner hosted by President Murmu, Prabowo made a joke referring to his newfound genetic ancestry to India.
“A few weeks ago, I had my gene sequencing test, and [the test results] determined that I have Indian DNA. Everybody knows that when I hear Indian music, I start dancing. It must be a part of my Indian genes,” he said.
Soon after touching down in New Delhi on Friday, the President visited Bahrisons Booksellers, a legendary bookstore in the Indian capital that was established in 1953.
Long known as an avid reader, Prabowo uploaded to X on Friday a photo of him browsing titles at the bookstore captioned, “stopping by my favorite bookstore in New Delhi”.