USAK has recently published a policy brief named as “Turkey and Indonesia from Friendship to Partnership”. This policy brief was prepared by Selçuk Çolakoğlu who is currently the Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at USAK and Arzu Güler who is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University. 

Turkey and Indonesia have developed cordial relations with each other since Indonesian independence. The facts that majority of the populations in both countries are Muslim and both countries’ political goals and policies show major similarities have constituted the necessary ground for close and friendly relations. 

Furthermore, it is expected that Turkey and Indonesia will be among the first 10 economies of the world within 20 years. Thus, Indonesia is a very important country for Turkey also in terms of trade partnership. However, this mutual friendship and close political relations could not have been backed by economic, cultural and social relations in a sufficient manner. Thus, bilateral economic relations remained on a very poor level until the beginning of 2000s. 

In this respect, this study has two soul aims. Firstly, all aspects of bilateral relations were examined from 1950s until today. Secondly, a roadmap for developingthe bilateral relations in a strategic manner was proposed.