U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is on an overseas trip taking him from a presidential inauguration to an historic commemoration.
On Monday, the country’s top envoy attended Joko Widodo’s inauguration as Indonesia’s president at a Jakarta ceremony attended by several East Asian heads of state. Widodo, the country’s seventh president, is the first without roots in either the political or military elite, Reuters news service reported.
Kerry met with Widodo later on Monday, and the two discussed the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq, the State Department later said. Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, has waged its own fight against militant Islamists.
Kerry also met Monday with Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot and Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario.
On Tuesday, Kerry is scheduled to visit the German capital Berlin to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also is expected to meet with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
