Flag of Indonesia

Indonesia is a large island state in South Asia.- East (Insulinde), between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Populated with 240.3 million inhabitants (2009), it has an area of 1.91 million square kilometres, and forms an immense archipelago of 17,508 islands (only 6,000 are inhabited).

These islands, three of which are shared with other states, form an arc extending 4800 km along the equator. Going from West to East, Sumatra with its dependencies (Babi (Simuluë), Nias, Bangka and Billiton), Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores and the western part of Timor, form the most southern arc of the system.

Inside this great arc of Circle lie Kalimantan (that is, the island of Borneo, except the North-West part, shared between Malaysia (Sarawak), and the small independent Emirate of Brunei), Sulawesi (Celebes), the Moluccas and more to the East the western part of New Guinea, or Irian Jaya (the eastern part forming the independent state of Papua New Guinea).