Downer winding up SE Asia tour

Tue, 23 Apr 1996, 00:00 WIB | Source: AFP

BANGKOK (AFP): Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
paid a courtesy call on Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa
yesterday as he wound up a three-nation tour of southeast Asia.

Downer, who took office last month after the National Party
won general elections in Australia, has said the main goal of his
visit is to underscore Canberra's determination to keep Asia a
foreign policy priority.

In an interview published yesterday in The Nation daily, he
said Australia had no intention of changing the previous
government's policy toward Myanmar which involved neither
encouraging nor discouraging trade.

Downer, who earlier visited Indonesia and Singapore, defended
what he termed his "constructive approach" to discussions with
Jakarta over the former Portuguese colony of East Timor.

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