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Many scholars believed that the changing of national leadership will to some extent also lead to the changing of foreign policy. This also applies to US foreign policy when Donald Trump took office as the 45th President of the US.Particularly in the foreign policy, his campaigns rhetoric brought up questions on the direction of US relations with its allies and adversaries. Previously, the US goverment under President Barrack Obama focused his foreign policy to Asia Pacific and Indonesia in particular with his "rebalance policy". With the changing of leadership of the US, some may argue that Donald Trump will also make some changes of his foreign policy toward Southeast Asia. This article discusses the possible impacts of the new US foreign polcy to Southeast Asia, in particular to Indonesia. It argues that in the short term, US foreign policy will pay more attention to non-Asia Pacific affairs. However, with the dynamic changes in the region, the US foreign policy to the region and especially to Indonesia will not alter substantially. US Vice President Mike Pence visit to Indonesia on April, 2017 indicated a positive continuity in US-Indonesia bilateral relations especially with discussion on deepening economic and security cooperation. To put it another way, there will be components of changes and continuity of US foreign policy to Indonesia due to its strategic interest to the region and to Indonesia. |
