New Delhi [India], September 8 : Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived in India on Friday for attending the G20 Summit, which will be held on September 9-10.
He was received by Minister of State Shantanu Thakur at the airport.
A group of dancers performed a classical folk dance to welcome the Indonesian President.
Notably, Widodo’s visit to India comes just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 18th East-Asia Summit and 20th ASEAN-India Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Indonesia is the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year.
Indonesia also made adjustments to the schedule so that PM Modi could go back to India on Thursday for the G20 Summit.
India and Indonesia have shared two millennia of close cultural and commercial contacts, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.
The Hindu, Buddhist and later Muslim faith travelled to Indonesia from the shores of India. The Indonesian folk art and dramas are based on stories from the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The shared culture, colonial history and post-independence goals of political sovereignty, economic self-sufficiency and independent foreign policy have unifying effect on the bilateral relations.
Indonesia has emerged to become the second largest trading partner of India in the ASEAN region. Bilateral trade has increased from USD 6.9 billion in 2007-08 to USD 19.03 billion in 2014-15.
There are around 100,000 Indonesians of Indian origin in Indonesia mostly concentrated in Greater Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Bandung.
The 18th G20 Summit is being held at the state-of-the-art Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.
A Leaders Declaration will be adopted at the conclusion of the New Delhi Summit.
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