Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
and the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
share a special relationship,
embedded in their shared history of colonial interactions for centuries. It began during the
spice trade
The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices, such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric, were known and used in antiquity and traded in t ...
as the Netherlands established the
Dutch East Indies Company
The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States General of the Neth ...
(VOC) trading post in what is now Indonesia, before
colonising it as the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...
until the mid-20th century. Indonesia was the largest
former Dutch colony. In the early 21st century, the Dutch government has committed to boosting its relationship with Indonesia, noting that economic, political, and interpersonal contacts should be further strengthened.
History
Cornelis de Houtman
Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 – 11 September 1599) was a Dutch merchant seaman who commanded the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies. Although the voyage was difficult and yielded only a modest profit, Houtman showed that the ...
and
Frederick de Houtman (a.k.a. ''de Houtman brothers''),
were Dutch explorers who discovered shipping routes from Europe to Indonesia and successfully started the Dutch spice trade. In 1592, Cornelis de Houtman was sent by the merchants of
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
to
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
to find as much information as possible about the
Spice Islands
In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for ...
(''today in Maluku''). By the time de Houtman returned to
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, the traders confirmed that
Banten
Banten (, , Pegon alphabet, Pegon: بنتن) is the westernmost Provinces of Indonesia, province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang and its largest city is Tangerang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capi ...
was the most appropriate place to buy spices. In 1594, they established the ''
Compagnie van Verre'' (a.k.a. ''long distance company''), and on 2 April 1595, four ships left Amsterdam: ''
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
'', ''
Hollandia'', ''
Mauritius
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
'' and ''
Duyfken
''Duyfken'' (; ), also in the form ''Duifje'' or spelled ''Duifken'' or ''Duijfken'', was a small ship built in the Dutch Republic. She was a fast, lightly armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages ...
''.
Cornelis de Houtman and his fleet arrived on 27 June 1596 in
Banten
Banten (, , Pegon alphabet, Pegon: بنتن) is the westernmost Provinces of Indonesia, province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang and its largest city is Tangerang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capi ...
waters, then returned on 14 August 1597 brought 240 bags of pepper, 45 tonnes of nutmeg, and 30 bales of mace.
In 1603, the VOC commenced operations in what is now Indonesia where it fought wars to expand its domain.
[Ricklefs, p.29] Though Indonesian history featured other European colonial powers, it was the Dutch who solidified their hold on the archipelago. After VOC's bankruptcy in 1800, the Netherlands took control of the archipelago in 1826.
[Ricklefs (1991), page 24] Following this, they also fought against the natives and then enforced a period of forced labour and indentured servitude until 1870 when, in 1901, they adopted the "
Dutch Ethical Policy and Indonesian National Revival," which included a somewhat increased investment in indigenous education and modest political reforms. Only in the 20th century, however, was Dutch rule enhanced to what would become Indonesia. Following Japanese occupation during World War II, the Netherlands tried to re-establish their rule, amid a
bitter armed and diplomatic struggle that ended in December 1949. International pressure then forced the Dutch to formally recognise Indonesian independence. In 1960, the government of Indonesia, led by
Sukarno
Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...
, cut off all diplomatic ties with the Netherlands, ties that were restored only in 1968 by the
New Order government.
High-level visits
In 1970, Indonesian President
Soeharto
Suharto (8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian Officer (armed forces), military officer and politician, and dictator, who was the second and longest serving president of Indonesia, serving from 1967 to 1998. His 32 years rule, cha ...
paid an official visit to the Netherlands, which was reciprocated by Dutch
Queen Juliana
Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was List of monarchs of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980.
Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Duke ...
and
Prince Bernhard royal visit to Indonesia in 1971.
Queen Beatrix
Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013.
Beatrix was born during the reign of her maternal gr ...
and
Prince Claus also paid a royal visit to Indonesia in 1995. On 22 April 2016, President
Joko Widodo
Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), often known mononymously as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician, engineer, and businessman who served as the seventh president of Indonesia from 2014 to 2024. Previously a member of the Indonesian Democratic ...
paid an official visit to the Netherlands. On 10 March 2020, King
Willem-Alexander paid a royal visit to Indonesia and made surprise apologies for excessive violence used during
the early years of Indonesian independence.
Political ties
In the past, relations between the two have been marred by the separatist intentions of the
Free Papua Movement and the
Republic of South Maluku
South Maluku, also South Moluccas and officially the Republic of South Maluku, was an unrecognised secessionist state that claimed the islands of Ambon, Buru, and Seram, which currently make up most of the Indonesian province of Maluku.
The ...
. In this vein, they have attacked targets in the Netherlands in the 1970s and 1980s, seeking to force the country to pressure Indonesia into allowing for the secession of their nation. Political ties were then strained as Indonesian officials refused to visit the Netherlands while the group was allowed to bring cases to court against them. However, the visit of the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs
Bernard Bot to Indonesia in 2005 to celebrate its 60th independence day anniversary was claimed by the Netherlands to have "marked a
historic moment in the relations between the two countries. After this visit, the relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands was further intensified and strengthened by the extension of the cooperation in a wide range of fields."
In 2010, Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to as SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired Indonesian Army, army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014 and the second president of Ind ...
cancelled a visit to the Netherlands after the group's activists asked a Dutch court to issue an arrest warrant for him. The move was condemned by pro-Indonesia Moluccan activists in Jakarta.
Economy and trade

The Netherlands is one of Indonesia's most important trade partners in Europe. Trade between the two countries between January and September 2012 reached US$3.314 billion, while efforts are currently underway to further boost that figure.
The Port of
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
and
Schiphol Airport
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport (, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municip ...
have been the main entry points for Indonesian products into the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
. Similarly, Dutch companies have seen Indonesia as their gateway to the larger
ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...
market, which is home to more than 500 million people.
Development assistance
For over 25 years, from 1966 to 1992, development assistance was provided by the Netherlands to Indonesia within the arrangements of the
Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI). IGGI had been established in the late 1960s to help coordinate the flow of foreign aid to Indonesia, and was convened and chaired by the Dutch government for over two decades throughout the 1970s and 1980s. However, in the early 1990s, the then-Minister for Development Cooperation in the Netherlands,
Jan Pronk
Johannes Pieter "Jan" Pronk Jr. (; born 16 March 1940) is a retired Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (Netherlands), Labour Party (PvdA) and activist.
Pronk studied Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam School ...
, became increasingly critical of domestic policy in Indonesia. In response, in early 1992, the Indonesian government indicated that it no longer wished to participate in the annual IGGI meetings in The Hague and preferred that a new donor consultative group, the
Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI), be established and be chaired by the World Bank. Initially, the Netherlands was not invited to attend CGI meetings. Later, the Netherlands became a member of the group.
Military ties
The Indonesian military procures naval vessels from the Dutch, such as
Van Speijk-class frigates and
Sigma-class corvettes.
Cultural relations

Traces of Dutch influences in Indonesia include
Dutch origin loanwords in
Indonesian and
cuisine
A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, List of cooking techniques, techniques and Dish (food), dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, ...
. Some Indonesian dishes have been adopted and, in turn, influenced
Dutch cuisine
Dutch cuisine is formed from the cooking traditions and practices of the Netherlands. The country's cuisine is shaped by its location on the fertile Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta at the North Sea, giving rise to fishing, farming, and overseas tra ...
. Though cultural relations are no longer strong,
Christianity in Indonesia
Christianity is Indonesia's second-largest religion, after Islam in Indonesia, Islam. Indonesia also has the second-largest Christian population in Southeast Asia after the Christianity in the Philippines, Philippines, the largest Protestan ...
was a result of proselytisation by mainly Dutch missionaries. There is also a sizable Indonesian population in the Netherlands. Many have set up their own churches in what has been termed as a "reverse mission," referring to the Dutch missionaries in the colonies.
Another legacy of colonial rule in Indonesia is the legal system that was inherited from the Dutch. In 2009, the Dutch Minister of Justice
Ernst Hirsch Ballin
Ernst Maurits Henricus Hirsch Ballin (born 15 December 1950) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist.
After the election of 1989 Hirsch Ballin was appointed as Minister of Justice in the Cab ...
visited Indonesia in what some considered a stepping stone to reforming its legal system.
Through centuries of colonial relations, numbers of cultural institutions in the Netherlands—such as
Tropenmuseum
The Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (previously known as Tropenmuseum () between 1950 and 2023) is an ethnographic museum with its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was originally founded in Haarlem, Netherlands in 1864 under the name ''Koloniaal ...
and
Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in
Leiden
Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...
—have extensive collections of Indonesian archaeology and
ethnology
Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology).
Sci ...
artefacts. Both are the leading centres of Indonesian studies in Europe, specialised in its culture, history, archaeology and ethnography. The
Erasmus Huis—the Netherlands' cultural centre—was established in 1970 in Jakarta. It was meant as cultural cooperation to promote art and cultural exchanges between Indonesia and the Netherlands. Besides many exhibitions, music performances and films screenings, some lectures on Dutch and Indonesian culture are being held on a regular basis in their auditorium and gallery.
Resident diplomatic missions

* Indonesia has an embassy in
The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
.
* Netherlands has an embassy in
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...
.
Embassy of the Netherlands in Jakarta
/ref>
Famous Dutch-Indonesians
*Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Giovanni Christiaan "Gio" van Bronckhorst (born 5 February 1975) is a Dutch Association football, football manager and former player who last managed Süper Lig club Beşiktaş J.K., Beşiktaş. Originally a midfielder, he moved to left-back lat ...
* Boudewijn de Groot
* Irfan Bachdim
*Alex Van Halen
Alexander Arthur Van Halen ( , ; born May 8, 1953) is an American musician who was the drummer and a co-founder of the rock band Van Halen, which was formed in 1972 by Van Halen and his younger brother Eddie Van Halen, Eddie under the name "Ma ...
*Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...
* Daniel Sahuleka
* Nyck de Vries
*Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing p ...
* Simon Tahamata
*Robin van Persie
Robin van Persie (; born 6 August 1983) is a Dutch football coach and former professional association football, footballer who is the head coach of Eredivisie club Feyenoord. He is regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and was ...
See also
* Foreign relations of Indonesia
*Foreign relations of the Netherlands
The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to the Atlanticism, Atlantic cooperation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. While historically the Kingdom of the Netherlands w ...
* Netherlands East Indies Corporation
*Indo people
The Indo people (, ) or Indos are Eurasian people living in or connected with Indonesia. In its narrowest sense, the term refers to people in the former Dutch East Indies who held European legal status but were of mixed Dutch and Native Indon ...
*Netherlands East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...
*Netherlands-Indonesian Union
The Netherlands-Indonesia Union (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Nederlands-Indonesische Unie,'' NIU; Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Uni Indonesia–Belanda,'' UIB), also called the two-state solution (Dutch language, Dutch: ''tweestaten-oplossing'' ...
References
External links
Indonesian Netherlands Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indonesia-Netherlands Relations
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
Bilateral relations of the Netherlands
Relations of colonizer and former colony