Analysis of Indonesian-Turkish relations (Political, diplomatic, and economics since 2002)

The Republic of Indonesia and Turkey have significantly positive multi-dimensional relations in the terms of politics and economy since 2002. After decades of experiencing stagnant relations, the disaster of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on December 26th, 2004 in the province of Aceh, triggger the establishment of Indonesia-Turkey relationships and became the driving force of their foreign policy towards Asia-Pacific overact strategic cooperation. The relations between Indonesia and Turkey into closer, it is indicated by the high-level official visits of both countries, humanitarian aid actions, and economic cooperation agreements in various sectors. Hence, the aim of this research is to analyze, examine, and understand the essence of bilateral relations between Indonesia and Turkey with particular emphasis on their political, diplomatic, and economic cooperation since 2002. Methodologically, this study uses a descriptive qualitative approach with the foreign policy analysis of Valerie M. Hudson and uses interviews, data collection, and document techniques. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that Indonesia and Turkey's relations has been significantly enhanced since 2002 in the term of the political-diplomatic dimensions based on a number of mutual high-level visits and economic cooperations between those countries. Even though there is also considerable improvement in the economic sphere, but it is not reached its potentional due to the lack of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries.