Antony Blinken
Antony BlinkenReuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the possibility of Indonesia normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel in meetings with officials in Jakarta last week, Israeli officials told Barak Ravid of Axios on Thursday, though they stressed that no such step is imminent.

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world and a major market for Israeli companies, but it has no official diplomatic relations with Israel.

Several years ago, Indonesian President Joko Widodo called on Muslim nations to unite in fighting Israel.

Last year, the country’s foreign minister expressed her country’s firm position in support of the Palestinian Authority in ending the “Israeli occupation of its land”.

In 2016, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Israel and Indonesia to develop bilateral relations. Indonesia promptly rejected those calls, saying the country will stand firm in its support of an independent Palestinian state and will not respond to Netanyahu’s remarks.

According to Ravid’s report, the Biden administration is trying to build on the Trump-era Abraham Accords, and in this case, looking beyond the Middle East to the largest of the countries that don't recognize Israel.

“We are always exploring additional opportunities for normalization, but we’ll leave those discussions behind closed doors until the right moment," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told Axios.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment. The Indonesian embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Indonesia was one of the countries the Trump administration tried to bring into the Abraham Accords, but the negotiations hadn't matured by the time Trump’s term ended.

A US official said last year that Indonesia could unlock billions of dollars in additional US financing if it were to establish relations with Israel.

Ravid’s report noted that Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata met Indonesian Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto at a conference in Bahrain last November. They sat together during the opening dinner of the conference and later exchanged business cards.

After Prabowo was photographed at the conference speaking to an Israeli diplomat, he issued a statement saying that speaking to Israeli officials is not prohibited when it serves the national interest.