ABSTRACT

This chapter explains, while continuing to face troubling claims for returns, Dutch officials remained delighted by the “improved” diplomatic climate. The process of reaching a new agreement in 1968, Foreign Ministry officials and cultural authorities began to see cultural relations as an extension of international development aid, which had come to largely define the Netherlands’ international role in years following Indonesia's decolonization. Despite the emphasis on economic aid to, and finding a place within development aid budgets for, cultural relations with Indonesia, however, the question of returning cultural property had been affecting the ratification process for new cultural agreement. After 1970, the new cultural agreement enabled them to play an expanded role in advancing Dutch cultural relations as development aid to Suharto's Indonesia. During Haji Mohammad Suharto's rise to power, Dutch officials were reviewing Indonesia's need for “support of its stabilization and rehabilitation programs,” and initial discussions about cultural cooperation were subordinated to issues of economic aid and technical assistance.