Jakarta, May 30: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today paid a visit to Indonesia’s grand Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, during his first official visit to the country.
Prime Minister Modi was accompanied by Indonesia President Joko Widodo during his visit to the mosque which was built to commemorate Indonesian independence and opened to the public in 1978.
“Glad to have visited the Istiqlal Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world,” Modi said in a tweet.
“Ramadan Karim! Indonesian President @jokowi accompanied PM @narendramodi during a visit to Istiqlal Mosque, the national mosque of Indonesia and the largest in southeast Asia, in the holy month of Ramadan,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
Istiqlal Mosque is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia and the third largest Sunni mosque in term of capacity. It is named ‘Istiqlal’, an Arabic word for “independence”.
Positioned next to Merdeka Square and the Jakarta Cathedral, the mosque was built after 17 years of construction and can accommodate over 120,000 worshippers.
Among foreign dignitaries who have visited the mosque in the past include former US Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Charles, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population followed by Pakistan and India.
Modi arrived in the Indonesian capital Jakarta yesterday on the first leg of his three-nation tour to East Asia during which he will also travel to Malaysia and Singapore to further boost India’s Act East Policy.
