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hen Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull arrives in Jakarta and holds an introductory meeting with President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo today, his host may feel a bit weird. Jokowi had only begun to familiarize himself with former PM Tony Abbott, but today he has to deal with a new Australian leader who, like Abbott, comes from the Liberal Party but has pledged to seek warmer ties with Indonesia.

Australia is strategically very important for Indonesia as evinced in the countries'€™ wide-ranging bilateral cooperation, including in counterterrorism, defense, economics, trade and politics. The two are members of the G20. The media in both countries, too, understand their neighbor better, but on the level of policymakers oftentimes emotions prevail over common sense.

Indonesians often perceive Australia as an arrogant deputy sheriff of the US without realizing that inter-dependence between the two countries is mutually beneficial. This fact has been largely ignored, paving the way for the ties between the two nations to be conflict-ridden.

Worse, President Jokowi has a strong '€œinward-looking'€ tendency and it is very regrettable that so far his government has not paid enough attention to its strategic neighbor, although he visited Australia to attend the G20 summit in Brisbane last year.

People-to-people relations, however, have increasingly improved. Australia is one of the favorite destinations of Indonesian parents for their children to pursue higher education, not just because of its world-class universities, but also because of its proximity to Indonesia.

But still, to its neighbor, the recent leadership change in Australia is hard to understand.

Many Indonesians raised their eyebrows when Turnbull suddenly ousted his party comrade Abbott in September. The Liberal parliamentarians kicked out Abbott as their party boss by 54 votes to 44. Abbott only held the position after his party won the September 2013 elections.

Australia has had five prime ministers in just five years. The country'€™s Labor Party also shares a similar history of party leadership coups. Kevin Rudd led the country from December 2007 until June 2010. Julia Gillard ousted Rudd that month and ruled Australia until June 2013. That was when Rudd got his revenge, but his government could only last for 11 weeks as Australia then held elections.

After his dramatic ouster, Abbott attacked Indonesia, saying that it would not offer new policies on climate change, border protection, or national security policies. He also said that Australia should stop swapping prime ministers '€œlike changing clothes'€.

Australia had to '€œget right away from this concept of changing the leader like you might change your clothes to suit the fashion'€, he told a local radio station.

It apparently explains why the Indonesian media has done little coverage on PM Turnbull'€™s visit, although his arrival in Indonesia will be followed up by the visit of a major Australian business delegation. Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson said Monday that 350 Australian businesspeople and four ministers would attend next week'€™s Indonesia-Australia Business Week. They will be led by Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Indonesia is Australia'€™s 10th largest overall trading partner and was the largest export market for Australian wheat worth A$1.3 billion (US$917 million) in 2014, as well as a major destination for live cattle and sugar.

'€œWe are very keen to use this visit to reposition Australian and Indonesian economic ties,'€ Ambassador Grigson explained.

PM Turbull has promised to rebuild relations between Australia and its giant neighbor more than his predecessors did. Reuters described Turnbull as being able to reset a vital diplomatic and economic relationship badly strained under Abbott.

The two countries have a long history of ups and downs in their relations. Abbott angered Indonesians when he said that Indonesia should be grateful for its massive aid after a tsunami devastated Aceh and Nias in North Sumatra in 2004. He linked Australia'€™s generosity to the executions of two Australian drug traffickers earlier this year.

Like what Abbot said, it is difficult to expect that Turnbull will substantially change Australia'€™s approach to Indonesia because the prime minister and his successor come from the same party.

But how will Indonesia respond to the domestic politics in Australia? While we do hope that Australia will enjoy a more stable and sustainable government in the future, we should also anticipate the opposite.

Indonesia now needs to focus more on the platforms of the parties and the internal development of major political parties should be more closely monitored by the Foreign Ministry and other relevant agencies. It will enable Indonesia to make a quick adjustment when there is a sudden leadership change there.

Turnbull is now governing the country, but who knows if he will be ousted soon by his own party colleagues.

Anyway, we welcome Turnbull for his brief visit to Jakarta. Hopefully he will have enough time to build better ties with the Jokowi government, but regardless of their political problems, Indonesia and Australia will remain neighbors. They need to behave themselves when dealing with each other.