By Daniel Lak in Delhi

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid is in Delhi for a two-day visit to India amid speculation about dissatisfaction in the military back home.

President Wahid's extended travels abroad may have raised some eyebrows in his own country but India is pulling out all the stops to welcome him as a newly-elected head of state from one of its old and traditional Asian allies.

The two countries have very warm relations going back decades to their respective struggles to gain independence from European colonial powers.

Mr Wahid has been received with the full state ceremony and will be seeing an array of senior Indian political and business leaders.

Emphasis on democracy

Indian diplomacy will probably remain circumspect on the matter of President Wahid's problems with the military but the private emphasis here is on democracy and maintaining a territorial integrity of Indonesia.

During the period of violence surrounding the referendum on independence for East Timor last year, there was concern in Delhi about the precedent that might be established in international law.

Legal scholars here went out of their way to point out that East Timor was different from Kashmir, the Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan.

The whole notion of a large former colony of a European power breaking into pieces that existed independent of one another in pre-colonial times is a troubling thought, although India is far more stable as a nation state than Indonesia appears to be at the moment.

Shared colonial past

The shared colonial past has prompted a close modern relationship that pre-dates the move towards democracy in Indonesia.

At one point during the freedom struggle in Indonesia, newly independent India sent an aircraft to rescue the future president and then freedom fighter Sukharno from the Dutch forces who had surrounded him.

The countries were among the founder members of the non-aligned movement that attempted to stay neutral during the Cold War.

These days there are many common business interests and the potential for great investment in both directions once various political and economic problems are resolved.

President Wahid's visit, it is hoped here, will go someway towards that, if he is not distracted by trouble on the home front.