Monaco vs Indonesia

When Indonesia proclaimed independence from Dutch colonial rule on August 17, 1945, it raised the Sang Saka Merah Putih. Monaco's government immediately took notice. The Principality of Monaco had formally codified its red-and-white horizontal flag sixty-four years earlier under Prince Charles III, and the Grimaldi family had used alternating red and white heraldic diamonds since the 14th century.

Monaco filed an official diplomatic protest with the new Indonesian republic, arguing that the identical colors and orientation would cause confusion in international maritime and state affairs. Indonesia refused to change its design, demonstrating that red and white had flown across the archipelago since the 1293 Majapahit empire, long before modern European vexillology had standardized.

Faced with historical evidence and Indonesia's immense geographic scale, Monaco dropped the complaint. Today, the flags coexist. When rendered accurately per national law, Monaco's flag is distinctly squarer than Indonesia's standard maritime proportions.