Jakarta. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will soon host his Indonesian counterpart Sugiono as Jakarta finally sends a high-level delegation to pay their respect for Iran’s slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Sugiono is now en route to the Iranian city of Mashhad alongside People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Ahmad Muzani, according to the latter’s social media post on Friday morning. Muslim group leaders Gus Yahya of Nahdlatul Ulama and Syafiq Mughni of Muahammadiyah are also joining the trip.

On the sidelines of the visit, Sugiono and Araghchi will hold bilateral talks. The diplomats had communicated by phone, including when Jakarta offered to serve as a mediator back in March. They had also met at a BRICS gathering in New Delhi two months ago.

The Foreign Ministry gave a vague explanation of the upcoming talking points.

“We hope the meeting will strengthen our bilateral ties across various priority sectors,” the ministry’s spokeswoman, Yvonne Mewengkang, told the press on Thursday. 

“We wish to speed up coordination in the face of regional and global challenges. … We believe that the visit reflects how Indonesia sticks to its ‘free and active’ foreign policy,” Yvonne said, referring to Jakarta’s stance of not taking sides.

The meeting will take place shortly after the last trapped Indonesian tanker finally exits the Strait of Hormuz. Yvonne neither confirmed nor denied whether Sugiono would use the opportunity to call on Tehran to keep the waterway open, as its prolonged closure had been fatal to global energy markets. 

The geography has given Iran an edge in this narrow waterway, enabling Tehran to block its traffic to retaliate against US-Israeli strikes that killed Khamenei.

Iran is in the D-8, the multi-trillion-dollar bloc of major developing nations that is now under Indonesia’s rotating chairmanship. The war had prompted the group to put off the Jakarta talks that were originally set for mid-April.

According to official statistics, Iran-Indonesia trade amounted to $257.9 million in 2025. However, commerce has slowed down following the conflict. Trade only reached $68.1 million in January-May 2025, down by around 26% year-on-year. 

Indonesia had initially planned to send its Tehran ambassador Rolliansyah Soemirat to represent the country at the funeral, a decision that drew domestic backlash. The government had attributed the senior-official-level absence to logistical issues, with Sugiono occupied with back-to-back foreign leaders’ visits to Jakarta. In a lengthy post, Indonesia’s ex-deputy foreign minister Dino Patti Djalal described the absence as a jab at Jakarta’s “long-time friend” Iran.

“Does this mean Indonesia's 'free and active' foreign policy is fading away because Indonesia is scared of the US? Has 'fear' become a factor in Indonesian foreign policy?" Dino said.

Read More: Indonesia’s Last Hormuz-Trapped Tanker to Arrive Home July 23

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