Indonesian Foreign Minister-Turkey Discuss Islamophobia To UN Security Council Reform

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (right) and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (left) conveyed information after a bilateral meeting at the Pancasila Building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, Saturday (15/7/2023). BETWEEN PHOTOs/Aditya Pradana Putra/foc.

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Saturday held a bilateral meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss issues such as Islamophobia and the United Nations Security Council (UN DK) reform.

During the meeting, Indonesia and Turkey also conveyed the interests shared by the two countries on the Palestinian issue.

"We have the same principles. We want Palestinian independence. We also want peace in Afghanistan and respect for the rights of Afghan women," Retno said as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, July 15.

Foreign Minister Fidan, who first made an official visit to Indonesia since taking office in June, said that the meeting also discussed various increasingly complicated global challenges, including Islamophobia and the despicable act of burning the Koran.

The world was shocked by the repeated burning of the Al-Quran in Sweden. The latest is the burning of the Al-Quran which was carried out at a mosque in Stockholm which coincided with Eid al-Adha, last June.

The action received widespread criticism from various countries and international organizations, including Turkey, Indonesia, the European Union, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

We also discussed various issues ranging from... Rohingya and UN Security Council reforms, "said Fidan.

The reform of the UN DK has caught the attention of the Indonesian government in the past few years.

Indonesia is also one of the countries that states the importance of Asian and African countries to continue to encourage the UN DK reform process in an effort to make the Security Council more democratic and representative.

The issue of the Security Council reform was also discussed by Russia. which is one of the five permanent members of the UN DK together with the US, China, France, and Britain.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that Moscow would seek to expand its UN DK membership to provide more representatives to Asian, African and Latin American countries, and break what he called Western domination.