page_title: West New Guinea dispute
section_title: Indonesian irredentism
hierarchical_section_title: West New Guinea dispute / The political dimension / Indonesian irredentism
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Foto. Leuzen tegen de aanwezigheid van Nederland in Nieuw-Guinea op de muren van een loods in Kebajoran
context_page_description: The West New Guinea dispute, also known as the West Irian dispute, was a diplomatic and political conflict between the Netherlands and Indonesia over the territory of Netherlands New Guinea. While the Netherlands had ceded sovereignty to Indonesia on 27 December 1949 following an independence struggle, the Indonesian government had always claimed the Dutch-controlled half of New Guinea on the basis that it had belonged to the Dutch East Indies and that the new Republic of Indonesia was the legitimate successor to the former Dutch colony.
  During the first phase of the dispute, Indonesia pursued bilateral negotiations with the Netherlands. During the second phase, Indonesia attempted to raise support for its territorial claims in the United Nations General Assembly. During the third phase, Indonesia pursued a policy of confrontation against the Netherlands which combined diplomatic, political, and economic pressure with limited military force. The final stage of the confrontation with Indonesia also involved a planned military invasion of the territory.
context_section_description: Between 1950 and 1953, the Netherlands and Indonesia tried to resolve the dispute through bilateral negotiations. These negotiations were unsuccessful and led the two governments to harden their position. On 15 February 1952, the Dutch Parliament voted to incorporate New Guinea into the realm of the Netherlands. After that, the Netherlands refused further discussion on the question of sovereignty and considered the issue to be closed.  In response, President Sukarno adopted a more forceful stance towards the Dutch. Initially, he unsuccessfully tried to force the Indonesian government to abrogate the Round Table agreements and to adopt economic sanctions but was rebuffed by the Natsir Cabinet. Undeterred by this setback, Sukarno made recovering West Irian an important priority of his presidency and sought to harness popular support from the Indonesian public for this goal throughout many of his speeches between 1951 and 1952.
  By 1953, the dispute had become the central issue in Indonesian domestic politics. All political parties across the Indonesian political spectrum, particularly the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), supported Sukarno's efforts to integrate West Irian into the Indonesian Republic. According to the historians Audrey and George McTurnan Kahin, the PKI's pro-integration stance helped the party to rebuild its political base and to further its credentials as a nationalist Communist Party that supported Sukarno.
caption: Graffiti against the presence of the Netherlands in West Irian.
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