During the regime of president Suharto, Indonesia built
strong relations with the United States and had difficult
relations with the People's Republic of China owing to
Indonesia's anti-communist policies and domestic tensions with the
Chinese community.
Indonesia is a founding member of the Association of
South East Asian Nations. Since the 1980s, Indonesia has
worked to develop close political and economic ties
between South East Asian nations, and is also influential in
the Organization of the Islamic Conference.