Can India and Indonesia lead the Indo-Pacific’s next chapter? | Jakarta Futures Forum 2025

Building the Next Consensus: Indonesia, India, and the Wild Wild West

As India and Indonesia mark 75 years of diplomatic ties, their growing partnership signals a move toward indigenous leadership in shaping the Indo-Pacific’s security, development, and governance. From maritime cooperation and regional defence innovation to climate-related disaster response and infrastructure and connectivity partnerships, the two countries could become the principal architects of stability and resilience through organisations like ASEAN, BIMSTEC, IORA and beyond. This panel will explore whether India and Indonesia can lead in crafting cooperative regional frameworks at a time when Western leadership is in crisis, global power is fragmented, and the pursuit of peace plays second fiddle to the pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Can the Indo-Pacific maritime security architecture be grounded in more local platforms like ASEAN and BIMSTEC rather than relying on externally driven frameworks like the QUAD?
Can India–Indonesia defence ties evolve into an Indo-Pacific framework for defence tech, defence trade, and the defence industry?
Can a regionally-owned climate disaster response mechanism led by India and Indonesia fill critical gaps left by traditional global humanitarian systems?
What are the limits of their cooperation? Where do strategic divergences lie, and how can these be navigated while advancing shared regional and security objectives?

Speakers
Harsh Pant, Vice President, Studies and Foreign Policy, Observer Research Foundation, India
Ken Jimbo, Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University, Japan
Rachel Rizzo, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Europe Center, Atlantic Council, United States of America
Aira Rasyidila Kusumasomantri, Co-Director for Partnership and External Engagement, Indo-Pacific Strategic Intelligence, Indonesia

Moderator
Grégoire Roos, Director, Political Dialogue & Policy Innovation, BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, France

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