Jaishankar holds talks with Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah and Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi on Friday with an aim to take forward the bilateral strategic partnership.

Abdullah is currently on a visit to India. He attended a foreign ministerial meeting of India and the ASEAN member states on Thursday.

The Malaysian foreign minister talked about the civilisational links between the two countries.

"Malaysia and India share civilisational links, which can be strengthened with peaceful co-existence approach. We will work together via an attachment programme for the exchange of knowledge and experiences, in line with Malaysia's cultural diplomacy initiative," Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

Abdullah's visit to India came days after Malaysia joined several other countries in the Arab world in denouncing certain controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad made by two BJP leaders, who have since been removed from party positions.

The ruling BJP has suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi unit media head Naveen Jindal for allegedly making the derogatory comments.

Separately, Jaishankar also held "productive" talks with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi, with a focus on bilateral cooperation in several key areas, including defence and security, trade and connectivity.

The talks with Indonesian counterpart were held under the framework of the India-Indonesia Joint Commission.

Marsudi is on a visit to India primarily to attend a foreign ministerial meeting of New Delhi and ASEAN member states that took place on Thursday.

After the talks, Jaishankar said the two sides reviewed the entire gamut of ties under the India-Indonesia comprehensive strategic partnership.

"Just concluded a productive 7th India-Indonesia Joint Commission Meeting with FM Retno Marsudi," Jaishankar said on Twitter.