Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said Indonesia would maintain its neutrality as it strived to diffuse Iranian-Saudi Arabian tensions and bring a message of peace to the two rival countries.

Retno departed for the Middle East on Tuesday to personally convey President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s message to the respective leaders.

Without mentioning which country she would visit first, Retno said her priority was to coordinate with her counterparts as soon as she arrived at the respective capital.

She highlighted that Indonesia'€™s stance was neutral and said it was crystal clear that Indonesia had a good relationship with both countries. '€œSo the first visit will be made entirely based on the matching of schedules, and that will tell nothing about preferences,'€ she said on Tuesday after bilateral talks with her visiting Singaporean counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan.

Retno continued to say that right now Indonesia'€™s main concern was to prevent the current situation from deteriorating and possibly opening the door to wider regional conflict. Indonesia, she went on, had become the first country to send a foreign minister to the Middle East to calm tensions.

Retno said that no religious figures would be included in her entourage this time around.

An expert on international relations from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Adriana Elizabeth, was quoted as saying by kompas.com that besides mediating between the conflicting countries, Indonesia could learn more about resolving conflicts.

'€œIt is expected that we could learn something from the peace mission that is in line with our domestic interests,'€ she said.

Indonesia has become a melting pot for many religious groups, including the two largest Muslim groups, Sunnis and Shiites, which are the predominant groups in Saudi Arabia and Iran, respectively.

Amid concerns that the Riyadh-Tehran spat could spill over to Indonesia, numerous religious figures have warned their followers that the conflict had nothing to do with religious adherence and that it was merely about politics.

The conflict between Saudi and Iran was incited by Saudi'€™s decision to execute 46 people, including Shiite cleric Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was widely known as a critical voice in the kingdom. Iranian protesters then ransacked the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran, which led to the arrest of dozens by Iranian authorities.

In retaliation, Saudi Arabia then broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on Jan. 4. Countries known as Saudi allies then followed the lead by scaling back diplomatic relationships with Iran.

Meanwhile, on bilateral talks between Indonesia and Singapore, the two ministers praised the relatively harmonious and intensive relationship and vowed to deepen cooperation by increasing agricultural trade and developing further economic opportunities.

Retno added that they had also discussed the possibility of a visit by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Indonesia in the near future.

Singapore, home to 5.4 million people, is currently Indonesia'€™s biggest foreign investor, reaching US$5.8 billion of realized investment in 2014. The two countries'€™ bilateral trading volume reached $40 billion in 2014.

Balakrishnan, who formerly served as the minister of environment and water resources, said improved regulations that would provide greater legal certainty would attract more Singaporean businesspeople to invest and do business in Indonesia.

He also said cooperation on fields like the digital economy, agriculture, tourism and other industries are waiting to be further explored. He added that many Singapore-based service companies intended to hire Indonesian university graduates.

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