Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has accused Israel, along with its allies, of exerting pressure on Muslim nations to normalize relations with them.
“Israel and its allies are systematically attempting to coerce Muslim countries into normalizing relations with them,” the minister stated, as quoted by the Jakarta Globe.
According to Marsudi's assessment, the Jewish state is actively pursuing efforts to undermine Palestine and allegedly requires the support of Islamic nations to achieve its objectives. However, the foreign policy chief did not specify which Muslim countries are facing pressure or who Israel's allies are in this endeavor.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, hasn't established formal diplomatic ties with Israel. Nonetheless, the two countries maintain bilateral trade relations. The volume of trade between Jakarta and Israel reached an estimated $65.8 million in the first quarter of 2024, as reported by the publication.
In April, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Lalu Mohammad Iqbal reiterated the government's stance, stating that Indonesia has no intentions of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. He reaffirmed Indonesia's firm support for Palestinian independence as part of a two-state solution and asserted the country's unwavering commitment to defending the rights of the Palestinian people.
In September 2020, Israel signed documents mediated by the US to normalize relations with Bahrain and the UAE in a trilateral deal known as the Abraham Accords. Following this, Morocco and Sudan also announced the normalization of relations with the Jewish state. Prior to these agreements, Israel maintained diplomatic ties with Arab nations only in Egypt and Jordan.
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Based on materials from TASS