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Indonesia believes US-Indonesia relations would remain good under Trump
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President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with vice president-elect Mike Pence as he gives his acceptance speech during his election night rally on Nov. 9 in New York. (AP/John Locher)
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ndonesia believes the US will keep up its good relations with Indonesia under the leadership of US president-elect Donald Trump, despite his controversial policy proposals, such as banning Muslims from entering the US.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said Thursday that as long as the US remained democratic, including by supporting the values of pluralism, it would make a positive impact on the world, including on Indonesia.
“The US is a country adhering to the principles of democracy and pluralism. As long as these principles are still adopted [by the US], there is nothing to be worried about [concerning US-Indonesia relations],” Arrmanatha said in a press briefing at the ministry’s headquarters in Central Jakarta.
The triumph of Trump in the US election against his rival Hillary Clinton came as a shock to many people in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world. Trump’s occasional remarks about banning Muslims from entering the US made him widely viewed as being anti-Islamic.
Arrmanatha said Trump’s remarks during the presidential campaign could just have been political rhetoric that might be different from his actual policies.
“All the remarks coming out [from Trump] might be just campaign rhetoric,” he said. “What we will see is his overall policies.”
He said for the time being he did not want to speculate about what sort of policies Trump would eventually come up with. (evi)
