Keating to talk with Soeharto before APEC

Keating to talk with Soeharto before APEC

CANBERRA (Reuter): Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating will travel to Indonesia next month for talks with President Soeharto ahead of November's APEC summit, Keating said on Tuesday.

It will be Keating's fifth visit to Australia's northern neighbor since becoming prime minister in 1991.

Keating is scheduled to meet Soeharto on Sept. 17, after arriving in Indonesia from the Papua New Guinea capital, Port Moresby, following his attendance at the South Pacific Forum and Papua New Guinea's 20th independence anniversary celebrations.

"I will meet President Soeharto to discuss the APEC meeting in Osaka in November as well as bilateral and regional issues," Keating said in a statement.

Keating and Soeharto are expected to meet on the resort island of Bali, although that has not yet been confirmed, a spokesman said.

Keating has repeatedly said in the past that no country is more important to Australia than Indonesia.

Leaders of the 18-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group are due to hold their third annual summit in the Japanese city of Osaka in November to discuss trade liberalization.

APEC groups Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.