The Latest: Pence tours Southeast Asia’s largest mosque

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, left, confers with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during their meeting at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, April 20, 2017. Pence is currently on a 10-day trip in Asia. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, Pool)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The Latest on U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to Asia (all times local):

1:45 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence and his family have toured Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia.

The Pences removed their shoes at the entrance and his wife and daughters covered their heads with scarves. Inside they stopped at a large drum called a bedug as a man demonstrated the drumming. They then stopped at an open terrace that looked out to the mosque’s dome.

Pence arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday as part of an Asian tour.

The mosque, which can accommodate up to 200,000 people, has become a focal point for the hard-line protest movement against Jakarta’s minority Christian governor. But in a sign of Indonesian diversity, the mosque is directly opposite a Catholic cathedral in central Jakarta.

Construction started in 1951 and the mosque was designed by Friedrich Silaban, a Protestant, according to its website.

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11:15 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence has reaffirmed the importance what he says is the strategic partnership between the United States and the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia.

After meeting with Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, he says Indonesia and the U.S. are both democracies and share the same values.

He praised Indonesia for the moderate from of Islam it practices and said the two countries would continue to cooperate on combating terrorism.

But Pence foreshadowed some reworking of the commercial and economic relationship saying that U.S. exporters should face a level playing field.