Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Indonesian Vice President Muhammad Jusuf Kalla agreed Saturday to work together in fighting Islamic extremism, Japanese officials said.
Their agreement comes at a time when a spate of attacks by Islamic extremists, including the recent killing of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State militant group, has fueled global concerns over the growing threat of terrorism.
The role of Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, is deemed important in efforts to combat Muslim extremists. Japan, for its part, has been taking steps to help reduce poverty in Southeast Asian countries as poverty is widely seen as a major factor in feeding terrorism, political analysts said.