Taliban Says Religious Cooperation with Indonesia to Expand

The Taliban administration has announced that Shoaib Barialai, the first political director at its Foreign Ministry, met in Jakarta with Nasaruddin Umar, Indonesia’s minister of religious affairs and imam of the Istiqlal Mosque, and discussed expanding religious and cultural cooperation.

According to a statement from the Afghan embassy in Indonesia, the meeting addressed issues including the development of bilateral relations, exchanges of experience between the two countries’ religious scholars, and the holding of joint meetings and programmes.

The Taliban said both sides also stressed strengthening ties between the religious institutions of Afghanistan and Indonesia and continuing contact and joint cooperation.

Saadullah Baloch, the acting head of Afghanistan’s embassy in Jakarta, was also present at the meeting. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, and the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta is considered one of the country’s best-known religious centres.