US Vice President Mike Pence’s ongoing 10-day tour of the Asia Pacific region closely follows the first face-to-face between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Experts said the Trump administration is trying to bolster its influence overseas and win back some political capital back home.

Speaking to CGTN, Yoichi Shimatsu, former editor at Japan Times Weekly, said Trump wants to avoid the escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“What he’s trying to do is to project his image of a very strong president to the people in the United States who are convinced. He has a loyal group of supporters, populists, nationalists, who are very disaffected now. He’s kind of winning over conservative Americans, hawkish republicans and democrats. That’s what he’s trying to do. But it’s not been effective,” Shimatsu said on CGTN's Dialogue, hosted by Yang Rui. 

Einar Tangen, author and columnist, said Trump’s polices were a mixture of security obligations and economic desires.

“What have we seen here, he’s mixed the security obligations with economic desires. Every step of the way, trying to say that you need America because there’re threats out there. And because you need us, you need to give us a better trade deal,” said Tangen.

As for Pence’s visit to Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Zhao Tong, fellow at Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, said Pence's visit would not result in Jakarta taking sides.

“I think Indonesia wants to maintain a neutral country, having a balanced relationship with all major powers. So I don’t think Indonesia would provide access to American military in the near term,” he said.