Australian PM to visit Indonesia early next year

Australian PM to visit Indonesia early next year

Agence France-Presse
Canberra

Australia's recently re-elected Prime Minister John Howard has
announced plans to visit Indonesia again early in the new year
for talks focusing on asylum seekers.

Howard told an informal gathering of journalists at his annual
press gallery Christmas party late on Monday that he hoped to go
in February or March, as a matter of priority.

However, his staff said on Tuesday that no dates had yet been
confirmed for the visit.

During a visit to Canberra last week, Indonesian Foreign
Minister Hassan Wirayuda discussed with Australian ministers the
problem for both countries of illegal immigration.

He voiced concern about Australia's so-called Pacific solution
by which illegal immigrants have been sent to Pacific nations
such as Nauru and Papua New Guinea where their claims for asylum
are being processed.

Wirayuda also secured Australian agreement to co-host with
Jakarta a regional conference on illegal migration in February.

Howard, who traveled to Indonesia in August, was the first
world leader to visit its new President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

However, relations were strained within a month when Howard
demanded that the Norwegian freighter Tampa take 433 asylum
seekers it had rescued from a sinking ferry in the Indian Ocean
back to Indonesia where they began their voyage.

Megawati refused to return Howard's calls, but she wrote to
him following his government third election win last month to
congratulate him on his victory and urge stronger ties between
the two countries.